7'  h-li 

Cibrarjo  of  t:Ke  Cheolojicd  ^eminar^ 

PRINCETON  •  NEW  JERSEY 
PRESENTED  BY 

Prof.  Paul  Van  Dyke,  D.D. 

.S85r 


THE 


WORDS  OF  THE  RISEN  SAVIOUR, 


AKD  COMMENTARY  ON 


THE  EPISTLE  OF  ST  JAMES. 


KUDOLF  STIEE, 


DOCTOR  OF  THKOI,()(iY,  CIIIKF  PASTOR  AND  SUPKIUNTENDENT  OF  SCHKEUDITZ. 


TKAXSLATED  FROM  THE  GERMAN, 

BY  Till-; 

REV.    WILLIAM    B.    POPE, 

MANCHESTER. 


PHILADELPHIA: 

SMITH,    ENGLISH,    AND   CO. 

XEW  YORK:  SHELDON  &  CO.   BOSTON:  GOUI>D  &  LINCOLN. 


M  D  C  C  C  L  I  X. 


CONTENTS. 


WORDS  OP  THE  RISEN  SAVIOUR. 

PAGE 

Introduction,         .......  i 

I.  To  Saul  the  Persecutor,  Acts  ix.  4-6,  xxii.  7-10,  xxvi.  14-16,  9 

II.  xVnanias'  Commission,  Acts  ix.  10-16,           ...  27 

III.  To  Saul  in  the  Temple  :  the  Mission  to  the  Gentiles  announced, 

Acts  xxii.  17-21,               .....  39 

IV.  Fiu'ther  Appearance  to  Saul :  To  whom  I  now  send  thee,  Acts 

xxvi.  16-18,          .             .             .             .             .             .  46 

V.  To  St  Peter  in  the  Trance  upon  the  Housetop,  Acts  x.  13-16, 

xi.  7-10,                ......  61 

VI.  To  St  Paid  in  Corinth,  Acts  xviii.  9,  10,       .             .             .  69 

VII.  To  St  Paid  in  Bonds  at  Jerusalem,  Acts  xxiii.  11,     .             .  75 

VIII.  To  St  Paul  in-  his  Infirmity,  2  Cor.  xii.  9,     .             .             .  S2 
IX.  To  St  John  in  Patmos,  at  the  beginning  of  liis  Visions,  Kev. 

i.  11,  17-20,          ......  92 

X.  The  Seven  Epistles  to  the  Seven  Churches,  Rev.  ii.,  iii.        .  113 

XI.  "  I -will  show  thee!"  Rev.  iv.  1,        .             .             .             .  207 

XII.  Final  Word  from  the  Tlu-one,  Rev.  xxi.  5-8,  .  .211 


COMMENTARY  ON  ST  JAMES. 

I.  Trials  pure  Joy,  ch.  i.  1-4,    .... 
II.  Asking  for  Wisdom,  i.  5-8, 

III.  The  Rejoicing  of  the  Lowly  and  the  Exalted,  i.  9-12, 

IV.  The  Origin  and  End  of  Evil,  i.  13-15, 
V.  All  Good  Gifts  from  Above,  i.  16-18, 

VI.  Swift  to  Hear,  i.  19, 
VII.  But  Slow  to  Speak,  i.  19,      . 
VIII.  Slow  to  Wrath,  i.  19,  20,      . 


225 
231 
239 
246 
254 
264 
273 
282 


IV 


CONTENTS. 


IX. 
X. 

XI. 

XII. 

XIII. 

XIY. 

XV. 

XVI. 

XVII. 

XVIII. 

XIX. 

XX. 

XXI. 

XXII. 
XXIII. 
XXIV. 

XXV. 

XXVI. 

XXVII. 

XXVIII. 

XXIX. 

XXX. 

XXXI. 

XXXII. 


The  Perpetual  Laying  Aside  and  Receiving,  i.  21,  .        289 

The  Self-deception  of  the  Hearers ;  the  Blessedness  of  the 

Doers,  i.  22-25,  .  .  .  .  .297 

The  Law  of  Liberty  :  Looking  into  and  continuing  in  it :  the 

Blessed  in  their  Deed,  i.  25,       .  .  .  .         304 

God's  Pure  and  Undefiled  Service,  i.  26,  27,         .  .        312 

No  Respect  of  Persons  in  the  Love  of  the  Neighbour,  ii.  1-9,   320 

328 
335 
342 
351 
360 
369 


How  the  Law  is  to  be  Understood  and  Kept,  ii.  10-13, 

Mercy  rejoiceth  against  Judgment,  ii.  13, 

Faith  without  Works,  ii.  14-19, 

The  "Works  of  Abraham's  and  Rahab's  Faith,  ii.  20-26, 

Not  every  Man  a  Teacher,  iii,  1,  2, 

The  Sins  of  the  Tongue,  iii.  3-12, 

The  Gentleness  of  True  Wisdom,  and  the  Wrath  of  False, 

iii.  13-16,  ......         380 

TheWisdomfrom  Above,  iii.  17,  18,       .  .  .388 

Whence  come  Wars  and  Fightings  among  you?  iv.  1-3,  398 

Conviction  and  Admonition  of  the  Unfaithfid,  iv.  4-10,  407 

Evil  Speaking  and  Judging,  iv.  11,  12,  .  .  .         417 

The  Uncertainty  of  owe  Short  Life,  iv.  13-17,     .  .         425 

The  Misery  coming  upon  the  Rich,  v.  1-6,  .  .         433 

Patient  Waiting,  v.  7-9,  .  .  .  .442 

Examples  of  Suffering  and  Patience,  v.  10,  11,  .  .         451 

Swear  Not ;  Pmify  your  Speech,  v.  12,  .  .         461 

Praying  and  Singing,  v.  13,        ....         470 

Ordinance  for  the  Sick,  v.  14-18,  .  .  .         478 

The  Greatest  Need,  and  the  Greatest  Work  of  Faith, 

v.  19,  20, 489 


INTRODUCTION. 


When  the  Apostle  Paul  in  1  Cor.  xv.  8  places  tlie  appearance 
of  the  risen  and  exalted  Jesus  to  himself  in  direct  continuation 
\vith  the  earher  appearances  of  the  Forty  Days — without  making 
express  mention  of  the  ascension — it  might  appear  that  he 
recognises  no  distinction  between  tiie  time  before,  and  the  time 
after,  that  event ;  and  the  meaning  which  he  intended  to  convey 
is  midoubtedly  this,  that  the  same  Person  who,  from  the  moment 
of  His  resmTL-ection,  had  begun  to  enter  into  His  glory,  after 
His  suffermg  and  death,  had  appeared  and  said  to  him — I  am 
this  Jesus.  Still  more  striking,  and  equally  important  in  its 
bearing,  is  the  fact  that  Ananias,  in  Acts  xxii.  14,  15,  places 
the  seeing  and  hearing  to  which  St  Paul  was  chosen,  on  a  level 
with  that  seeing  and  heanng  which  (according  to  ch.  i.  21,  22) 
was  the  quahfication  of  one  who  should  be  a  "  witness  to  all 
men  of  that  w^hich  he  had  seen  and  heard" — that  is,  of  an 
Apostle.  The  Lord's  Hfe  of  himiihation  and  His  life  of  glory- 
are  here  really  embraced  in  one  comprehensive  glance ;  hence, 
Ananias  used  the  same  expression,  "the  Just  One,"  which 
Stephen  used  in  ch.  vii.  52.  All  this  emphatically  teaches  us 
that  the  transaction  with  the  Apostle  Paul  must  be  classed 
among  those  manifestations  of  our  Lord  Avhich,  notwithstanding 
the  inten-ening  glorification  in  heaven,  were  bodily  manifesta- 
tions. Jesus  appeared  to  him  (Acts  ix.  17,  xxvi.  16)  as  to  those 
who  saw  Him  before  the  ascension ;  although,  on  the  other  hand, 

A 


2  rNTEODUCTION. 

St  Paul  forgets  not,  before  Agrippa  (cli.  xxvi.  19),  to  lay  stress 
upon  the  heavenly  vision. 

This  last  passage  teaches  us  fui*ther  that  the  ascension,  as 
the  final  consummating  point  of  the  exaltation  of  Jesus,  must, 
notwithstanding  all  this,  maintain  its  place.  We  denounce  the 
blasphemy  of  those  who,  with  Brennecke,  of  melancholy  memory, 
fable  that  Christ  lived  upon  earth  twenty-seven  years  after  His 
crucifixion,  planning  all  kinds  of  appearances  to  His  disciples ; 
as  well  as  the  theoiy  of  Kinkel,  which  has  found  too  much 
favour  with  the  learned,  that  there  was  no  real  ascension  after 
the  resurrection.  The  different  manner  in  which  the  Lord 
appeared  and  spoke,  after  His  visible  ascension,  of  itself  csta- 
bKshes  the  distinction  most  firmly;  apart  from  the  authentic 
narrative  of  that  event,  and  the  subsequent  doctrine  fomided 
upon  it.  For,  although  St  Paid,  according  to  his  essentially 
correct  system,  ordinarily  gives  prominence  only  to  the  resur- 
rection (with  its  infolded  results)  as  the  definite  point  of  transi- 
tion between  the  humiliation  and  exaltation  of  Christ — even  as 
the  Chxu'ch  kept  Easter  first,  and  only  afterwards  added  the 
festival  of  the  Ascension — yet  the  same  Apostle  speaks  abun- 
dantly of  the  Redeemer's  session  at  the  right  hand  of  God  in 
heaven  (Eph.  i.  20,  etc.,  iv.  10;  comp.  Heb.  iv.  14,  viii.  1, 
ix.  24),  in  the  same  manner  as  St  Peter  does,  1  Pet.  iii.  22. 

We  have,  therefore,  scriptural  ground  for  literally  under- 
standing, as  the  Church  has  ever  believed  and  confessed,  both 
the  "  I  am  not  yet  ascended  "  and  the  "  I  ascend "  of  the  risen 
Lord  Himself  (John  xx.  17),  and  the  "He  is  ascended"  of  His 
witnesses ;  consequently,  we  are  justified  in  saying  that,  as  the 
discourses  of  the  risen  Jesus  were  still  uttered  upon  earth,  the 
words  of  the  exalted  Jesus  are  distinctively  words  from  heaven. 
"  The  discourses  of  the  Lord  .Tesus,"  taken  in  their  strict  uni- 
versality, were  not  closed  with  the  last  sayings  of  the  ascending 
Christ  (Acts  i.  8,  9)  ;  and  the  supplement  which  was  promised 
at  the  close  of  om*  larger  exposition  must  now  introduce  tlie 
essentially  last  words. 

Were  they  absolutely  the  last?  It  may  be  said,  in  another 
sense,  that  the  Lord  has  never  ceased  to  speak  to  His  people, 
and  never  will  cease  to  speak  to  them ;  that  is,  by  the  Holy 
Ghost.  But,  with  the  same  propriety  as  the  Lord  Himself  and 
the  entu'e  New  Testament  make  the  distinction,  we  may  dis- 


INTRODUCTION.  3 

tinguish  between  the  recorded  sayings  of  the  personal  Jesus, 
speaking  from  heaven,  and  His  internal  revelation  by  the 
Spirit.  It  is  a  different  matter,  and  one  -which  falls  not  within 
the  range  of  the  task  which  we  propose,  that  we  find  the  Spirit 
speaking  to  Philip  on  the  way  to  Gaza,  Acts  \\\i.  29,  as  the 
same  Spirit  caught  Mm  away  in  ver.  39 ;  and  that  the  Spirit 
speaks  to  Peter,  ch.  x.  19  (xi.  12),  even  as  the  angel  to  Cor- 
nelius. With  these  we  must  class  also  the  forbidding  of  the 
Spirit  (and,  according  to  the  more  correct  reading,  of  the  Spirit 
of  Jesus),  ch.  xvi.  6,  7,^  which  may  have  been  by  an  audible 
word  heard  internally ;  but  St  Luke  expressly  distinguishes  the 
speaking  of  the  Spirit  from  the  personal  annoimcements  of  the 
Lord,  whether  speaking  in  broad  day  or  in  night  visions.  Li 
ch.  xiii.  1,  2,  where  the  prophets  of  the  New  Testament  are 
spoken  of,  he  passes  over  into  the  general  expression,  "  the  Holy 
Spirit,"  to  indicate  this  indirect,  mediated,  and  continuous  inter- 
course with  His  people. 

Thus  the  "words  of  the  Lord  Jesus  from  heaven" — so  far 
as  the  Scripture  records  them — retain  and  exhibit  their  distinc- 
tive peculiarity  in  this,  that  the  glorified  bodily  personality  of 
the  God-man  is  manifested,  or  gives  itself  expression,  vdth  the 
voice  of  the  individual  /.  This,  on  the  one  hand,  is  still  just 
as  in  the  Forty  Days,  inasfar  as  the  personal  fellowship,  sus- 
pend,ed '  in  the  rule,  is  renewed  in  the  exception ;  on  the  other 
hand,  there  is  a  great  difference,  inasmuch  as  the  familiarity 
which  stiU  existed  during  those  days,  as  they  were  in  some  sense 
linked  ^\\.\h  His  former  life  upon  earth,  has  utterly  ceased,  and 
can  never  retm'n,  even  on  the  occasions  of  His  deepest  con- 
descension. But  still  the  unbroken  unity  and  identity  of  His 
person,  of  that  person  which  had  smik  into  the  depths  of  shame 
and  death,  is  preserved — I  am  Jesus  of  Nazareth!  (Acts  xxii.  8) 
I  Avas  dead!  (Rev.  i.  18) ;  just  as  at  an  earlier  period  He  who 
was  going  to  His  death  could  say — Glorify  me  with  the  gloiy 
which  I  had  wath  Thee  before  the  world  was ! 

These  manifestations  and  self-announcements,  these  direct 
words  and  utterances  of  the  enthroned  Lord,  could  not  indeed 
have  been  utterly  wanting  upon  earth  in  this  final  term  of 
transition :  they  were  His  superabundant  confinnation  of  His 
promise  and  pledge  concerning  His  disciples'  not  seeing  and  yet 
^  In  ch.  xviii.  5,  "  Spirit "  is  a  false  reading  for  "  Word." 


4  INTRODUCTION. 

believing,  their  not  seeing  and  yet  possessing  Him.  They  were 
the  final  assui-ances  with  which  from  heaven  He  greeted  earth, 
and  sealed  His  farewell  word  upon  the  Mount  of  Olives.  "  Be- 
hold,  I  am  with  you  always,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world." 
AVliat  if  nothing  of  this  kind  had  tran  spumed,  and  been  recorded, 
since  His  departure  ?  It  is  true  that  the  pentecostal  believers 
in  their  first  vigour  needed  no  such  testimony  to  corroborate 
their  growing  experience  that  the  Lord  was  with  them ;  they 
assuredly  neither  sought  nor  expected  any  such  evidence.  But 
[srael,  perishing  in  unbehef,  and  persecuting  the  Church, 
might  be  expected  to  receive  such  a  supernumerary  self -testimony 
of  the  Persecuted ;  though,  in  the  nature  of  the  case,  only  in 
the  person  of  a  man  who  had  been  one  of  themselves,  who 
testified  to  them  what  he  had  seen,  and  confirmed  that  testimony 
through  the  whole  of  life.  Further,  all  the  world,  and  even 
the  enfeebled  and  secularised  Christendom  of  the  future,  needed 
such  a  final  fulfilment — given  as  the  pledge  of  its  last  fulfil- 
ment— of  the  word  which  had  been  spoken  before  the  tribunal 
of  man,  "Hereafter  ye  shall  see  the  Son  of  Man  sitting  on  the 
right  hand  of  power,  and  coming  in  the  clouds  of  heaven ! " 
But  this  could  take  place  only  through  the  indirect  mediation 
of  others;  thus,  at  the  commencement  of  these  personal  an- 
nunciations of  the  exalted  Lord,  Stephen  testified  before  them 
of  his  seeing  the  Son  of  Man  in  heaven ;  and  Saul  soon  after- 
wards of  his  having  both  seen  and  heard  the  Lord. 

Spinoza  is  said  to  have  declared  that  if  he  could  admit  the  fact 
of  the  resurrection  of  Lazarus,  he  would  demolish  his  system 
and  become  a  Christian.  AVherefore  could  he  not  believe  the 
Apostle  Paul,  and  the  testimony  of  his  whole  apostolical  life,  to 
the  personal  manifestations  of  the  Son  of  God?  It  may  be 
observed,  generally,  that  the  revelations  and  words  of  the  Lord 
Jesus,  after  His  ascension,  have  not  received  their  fitting  tribute 
of  attention  from  the  scientific  theology  even  of  the  orthodox. 
For  example,  in  Ilasc's  excellent  book,  "  The  Life  of  the 
Glorified  lledeemer  in  Heaven,  according  to  His  own  Words," 
there  is  no  place  given  to  His  own  sayings  after  the  ascension ; 
although  such  words  as  Acts  xxvi.  16-18,  xviii.  9,  10,  and 
especially  Rev.  i.  17,  etc.,  xxi.  5,  are  most  mighty  testimonies, 
and  confirm,  in  their  collective  force,  most  emphatically  the 
witness  of  the  Forty  Days,  "  It  is  I  ni}  self ."     It  might  almost 


INTRODUCTION.  5 

seem  that  in  these  times  the  immediate  truth  and  reahty  of  the 
records  which  contain  the  announcements  of  Jesus  from  heaven 
were  themselves  regarded  with  some  degree  of  suspicion. 

But  the  scriptvu'al  testimonies  concerning  them,  standing  in 
their  sublime  simplicity  in  the  midst  of  other  plain  historical 
narratives,  demand  the  most  absolute  faith ;  more  especially  as 
they  exhibit  to  us  that  gradual  transition  to  purely  spiritual 
revelation  which  approves  itself  to  our  understanding  as  what 
might  have  been  expected.  For,  although  it  is  probable  that 
not  all  the  "  signs  "  and  "  infallible  proofs  "  have  been  placed 
on  record  (John  xx.  30;  Acts  i.  3) — although  the  Lord  may 
frequently,  especially  in  the  earlier  time,  have  spoken  to  His 
disciples  "  in  vision,"  and  St  Paul  speaks  expressly  of  other 
revelations  (most  plainly  in  1  Cor.  xi.  23;  comp.  2  Cor.  xii.  1, 
and  already  in  Acts  xxvi.  16) — yet  that  which  the  Scripture 
does  record,  appears  to  us  to  mark  out  the  definite  process  by 
which  the  revelations  of  our  Lord  were  gradually  withdrawn 
into  the  internal  domain  of  the  Spirit. 

In  the  first  actual  utterance  of  His  words  from  heaven, 
(after  Stephen  had  beheld  Him  looking  down).  He  is  both  seen 
and  heard  in  His  perfect  bodily  personality ;  in  broad  day,  with 
a  manifestation  which  appealed  to  the  sense,  not  of  Paul  alone, 
but  of  those  also  who  accompanied  him.  And  He  seems  to 
say — as  it  were,  ignoring  the  ascension,  but  in  reality  giving  it 
its  right  explanation — "I  can  appear  whenever  and  wherever  I 
will ;  I  have  not  in  such  a  sense  gone  into  heaven  that  heaven 
has  received  and  shut  me  in  ! "  (According  to  a  false  rendering 
of  Acts  iii.  21.)  Concurrently,  there  is  the  more  mediate  and 
less  direct  word  to  Ananias  in  vision  (Acts  ix.  10).  The  suc- 
ceeding "appearances"  to  St  Paul,  Acts  xxvi.  16 — where  we 
may  more  exactly  translate,  "  which  I  will  cause  thee  to  see  of 
Myself"  ^ — have  no  longer  the  manner  of  His  first  appearance, 
in  which  Saul  beholds  Him  plainly  and  awfully  in  the  broad 
daylight  of  life.  We  read  in  Acts  xxii.  17,  that  the  Apostle 
was  in  a  trance  while  pra}ang,  and  thus  beheld  the  Lord  who 
spake  to  him.  So  with  St  Peter  (ch.  x.  13),  where  the  voice  of 
Him  whom  he  addresses  as  Lord,  was  most  probably  (indeed, 

^  The  coiistniction  is  an  unusual  one  :  au  n  o(p6'/iao/^ccl  cto/,  de  qnihts  tibi 
porro  appareho,  "  that  which  (or  in  -which)  I  will  appear  to  thee,  will  be 
seen  of  thee." 


6  INTRODUCTION. 

we  naturally  presuppose  it)  tlie  voice  of  God,  that  is,  of  the 
Son;  comp.  ver.  28.  Soon  after,  we  find  that  to  St  Paul 
also  the  Lord  spake  in  a  vision  hy  night,  chs.  xviii.  9,  xxiii.  11, 
although  in  the  second  passage  it  is  added,  "The  Lord  &tood 
by  him."  All  these  expressions  are  carefvilly  adjusted  by  the 
Spirit's  inspiration,  through  the  instrumentality  of  the  careful 
investigation  of  the  historian,  St  Luke.  We  see  that  in  the 
period  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  there  is  always  something 
jyersonal  in  the  appearance  and  speaking  of  the  Lord,  though 
with  a  gradually  increasing  mediateness,  and  decreasing  direct- 
ness. These  words  of  our  Lord  Jesus  from  heaven — that  is, 
in  the  apostolical  nan*ative — we  have  abeady,  for  the  most 
part,  expounded  in  "  The  Discourses  of  the  Apostles,"  ^  and 
must  therefore  take  the  liberty  of  repeating  more  or  less  literally 
what  has  been  there  said,  though  with  such  modifications  as  Our 
present  scope  and  object  requires. 

Passing  over  the  Epistles,  the  glorified  bodily  exhibition  of 
the  Son  of  Man  appears  once  more  to  return,  and  still  more 
fully  and  majestically,  at  the  end  of  the  New  Testament  to 
St  John,  Rev.  i.  11,  etc.  This  is,  in  a  certain  sense,  the  case; 
yet  it  is  also  in  contrast  with  the  first  manifestation  to  St  Paul, 
inasmuch  as  St  John  was  in  the  Spint  when  he  heard  the  Lord's 
voice  and  saw  his  visions,  but  Saul  was  most  assiu*edly  not  "  in 
the  Spirit"  near  Damascus.  Yet  that  Avhich  is  heard  in  the 
Spirit  is  not,  on  that  account,  the  less  actual;  only  through 
such  a  medium  was  it  possible  to  look  into  the  depths  of  heaven, 
and  hear  the  words  of  the  Lord  from  the  throne. 

Between  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  and  the  Eevelation  of 
St  John,  we  find  once  the  definite  expression,  "  The  Lord,  after 
I  had  supplicated  Him,  said  unto  me"  (2  Cor.  xii.  9).  We 
receive  this  literally  as  it  stands ;  and  regard  it  as  a  sufficient 
example  of  many  instances  in  which  the  Lord  may  have  spoken 
to  His  people  in  Avords  of  comfort  and  exhortation,  avidible  in 
the  Spirit !  We  by  no  means  deny  that  the  same  takes  place 
in  the  present  day ;  on  the  contraiy,  it  is  our  confident  assur- 
ance that  it  does. 

Finally,  as  it  regards  the  Revelation  of  St  John,  after  the 
first  most  personal  and  emphatically  impressive  appearance  of 

^  Or,  Andeutuiifjen  fur  glduliyes   Schri/tverstandniss,  dritte   und  vierte 
Sammlung. 


INTRODUCTION.  7 

the  Living  One,  wlio  was  dead  and  now  liveth  for  evermore, 
the  style  of  the  vision  passes  over  into  the  language  of  figure 
and  sjTiibol,  corresponding,  indeed,  but  not  directly  so,  to 
realities.  The  voices  of  the  angels,  of  the  elders,  of  the  living 
creatures,  of  the  martp's  and  overcomers,  of  the  saved,  of  all 
creatiu'es,  are  all  assuredly  a  succession  of  revelations  and  sayings 
of  the  Lord  Himself,  mediated  by  the  prophetic  Spirit;  but 
this  belongs  to  a  mysterious  domain,  on  the  borders  of  which 
our  humble  little  work  pauses  in  silence.  But  we  must  assert 
an  exception  for  those  revelations  w^hich  occm'  on  the  shadowy 
tkreshold,  and  which  directly  continue  the  solemn  character  of 
personal  manifestation  stamped  upon  the  first  appearance  of  the 
Lord  in  this  book.  We  shall,  therefore,  expoimd  the  Seven 
Epistles  of  chs.  ii.  and  iii.,  in  which  the  Lord,  who  comes  upon 
the  scene  in  ch.  i.,  speaks  on  without  interruption,  uttering^  with 
His  lofty  /,  to  the  churches  throughout,  what  He  commands 
His  ser»^ant  to  xo^ite  to  them.  Then  we  shall  consider  that 
brief  word  of  the  same  original  voice,  ch.  x.  1.  And,  finally, 
the  most  subhme  conclusion  of  all  the  Lord's  sayings,  the  word 
from  the  Throne,  ch.  xxi.  5-8 ;  from  which  the  passages  of 
ch.  xxii.  are  essentially  distinguished,  notwithstanding  the  "I 
Jesus,"  ver.  16.  Here  the  Lord  enters  as  the  speaker,  after  the 
figm'ative  manner  of  the  ancient  prophetical  Scriptiires,  to 
Avhich  this  last  prophetical  book,  with  its  New  Testament 
contents,  returns. 

We  remark  that  the  only  words  recorded  as  spoken  from 
heaven  were  addressed  to  the  tliree  great  Apostles,  Paul,  Peter, 
and  John ;  the  only  exception  being  the  words  spoken  to  An- 
anias, and  recorded  for  the  sake  of  St  Paul.  St  Peter  retreats 
most  into  the  background,  with  his  single  "  voice " ;  St  Paid 
receives  the  most  direct  and  impressive  manifestations;  but 
St  John  is  favoured  with  the  profoundest  and  most  far-reaching 
utterances  which  the  Lord,  who  is  the  Spirit,  had  to  say  to  the 
churches,  and  is  still  ever  saying  to  them  by  His  servant,  the 
bosom-disciple. 


I. 

TO  SAUL  THE  PERSECUTOR. 

(Acts  Ix.  4-6— xxii.  7-10— xxvi.  14-16.) 

Thrice  in  the  com-se  of  the  brief  Acts  of  the  Apostles  is  this 
most  important  revelation  of  our  Lord  described ;  as  if  to  warn 
our  ignorance  not  too  swdftly  to  dispatch  it,  and  not  too  hastily 
to  assume  its  right  interpretation  attained.  But,  instead  of 
taking  this  hint,  the  fond  ignorance  of  too  many  has  occupied 
itself  with  detecting  contradictions  in  the  threefold  narrative,  and 
with  drawing  its  own  foolish  conclusions  from  those  contradic- 
tions. As  if  St  Luke  did  not  himself  best  know,  with  his  "per- 
fect miderstanding  of  all  things  from  the  very  first,"  that  which 
he  recorded  in  different  parts  of  his  book,  with  a  designed  varia- 
tion. In  ch.  ix.  he  himself  relates  the  occiu'rence  as  a  his- 
torian, but  obviously  with  the  same  regard  to  brevity  of  dehnea- 
tion,  seizing  only  and  giving  prominence  to  the  critical  points, 
which  the  necessity  of  his  work  imposed  upon  him  throughout ; 
and,  moreover,  with  the  intention  in  reserve  to  add  further  par- 
ticulars in  due  coiu-se.  For,  he  has  further  to  give  two  leading 
examples,  in  chs.  xxii.  and  xxvi.,  of  the  manner  in  which  the 
Apostle  himself,  never  weaiy  of  the  repetition,  was  wont  to 
relate  this  experience,  as  the  ground,  again  and  again  to  be 
made  valid,  of  his  whole  annoimcement  from  his  Master.  That 
there  exists  some  variety  in  the  relation  and  expression  is 
perfectly  natural : — is  it  reasonable  to  require  that  the  Apostle 
should  have  eveiyv\diere  given  the  same  stereotyped  account? 
Of  the  external  transaction  we  shall  speak  hereafter ;  we  confine 
ourselves  now  to  a  preliminary  view  of  the  words  of  our  Lord, 
which,  in  their  measured  exactness,  were  thus  word  for  word 
spoken,  but  the  literal  repetition  of  which  St  Luke  appro- 
priately leaves  to  the  relating  Apostle.     Before  the  exasperated 


10  TO  SAUL  THE  PERSECUTOK. 

Jewish  people,  he  gives  prominence,  for  instance,  to  the  ex- 
pression by  which  the  Lord  described  Himself,  and  which  wa 
peculiarly  appropriate  to  these  scorners  and  persecutors — I  am 
Jesus  of  Nazareth  !  Further,  He  makes  the  command  express, 
' — "Go  into  J)amascus"  instead  of  "into  the  city."  But  who 
needs  to  know  which  of  these  two  was  actually  spoken  ?  He 
proceeds,  "  it  shall  be  told  thee  of  all  things  which  are  appointed 
for  thee  to  do,"  instead  of  "  what  thou  shalt  do."  Again  after- 
wards before  the  Roman  Governor,  and  the  last  so-called  King 
of  the  Jews,  the  Apostle  makes  it  significantly  emphatic  that 
the  Lord  spake  in  the  Hebrew  tongue.  On  the  former  occasion, 
on  the  stau's  of  the  castle,  the  Apostle  himself  had  spoken  in 
the  Plebrew ;  but  now,  speaking  Greek,  he  naturally  mentions 
this  circumstance.  The  word  concerning  "  kicking  against  the 
pricks "  (which  in  the  first  narrative  is  a  false  reading,  inter- 
polated from  ch.  xxvi.),  had  primary  reference  only  to  the 
Apostle's  own  person  and  conscience ;  it  might,  therefore,  be 
omitted,  as  mmecessary,  when  speaking  to  the  mass  of  the 
people.  But,  addressed  to  Agrippa,  pierced  in  conscience, 
perplexed,  and  wavering,  as  he  was  (comp.  ch.  xxvi.  28),  it  had 
a  peculiarly  appropriate  force.  Finally,  we  shall  see  that  St 
Paul,  in  his  rapid  naiTative,  ch.  xxvi.  16,  connects  with  the 
Lord's  last  word  outside  Damascus  a  compendious  statement  of 
a  subsequent  appearance  and  commission. 

After  having  thus,  for  the  sake  of  those  to  whom  it  is 
necessary,  paused  so  long  at  the  threshold,  let  us  now  enter  the 
sanctuaiy  of  the  first  word  of  Jesus  from  heaven !  The  first 
word  it  assuredly  is.  Stephen,  before  he  fell  under  the  stones 
of  the  murderers  of  the  Just  One,  had  seen  heaven  opened  and 
Jesus  at  the  right  hand  of  God  (standing,  too,  as  if  rising  to 
greet  and  receive  him) ;  but  His  ivords  the  Lord  had  reserved 
for  Saul.  This,  well  considered,  leads  to  some  important 
reflections.  The  appeal  of  Jesus  to  His  persecutor  is,  as  the 
first  word  from  heaven,  so  characteristically  significant,  and  so 
full  of  symbolical  meaning,  that  we  cannot  bring  ourselves  to 
think  of  it  as  other  than  the  first.  It  may,  indeed,  be  suggested 
that  our  Lord's  voice  had  probabl}'-  been  heard  in  the  answers 
to  His  people's  prayers.  It  has  been  even  inferred  from  the 
"  familiar  manner  in  which  Ananias,  as ,  one  not  unaccustomed 
to  receive  communications  from  his  Lord,"  makes  objection  to 


ACTS  IX.  4-6;   XXII.  7-10;   XXVI.  14-16.  11 

the  evil  reputation  of  Saul,  that  that  disciple  must  have  spoken 
with  Jesus  before  this  occasion.  But  tliis  is  only  a  specious 
argument ;  the  familiarity  of  prayer  would  have  begotten  this 
confidence,  and  we  must  remember  the  "  vision,"  in  which  man 
approaches  nearer  and  less  reseiTedly  to  God.  Suffice,  that  we 
may  justly  regard  this  as  the  Lord's  first  opening  His  mouth  in 
audible  words  since  His  ascension. 

The  narrative  thrice  begins  with  "light  shining  romid 
about  fi'om  heaven"  ;  in  ch.  xxii.  it  is  a  "great  light"  ;^  and  in 
ch.  xxvi.,  still  more  emphatically,  "  above  the  brightness  of  the 
sun".  If  the  face  of  Jesus  shone  as  the  sun  upon  the  Mount 
of  Transfigm'ation,  must  not  the  first  beaming  forth  of  His 
heavenly  glory  be  still  more  dazzling  ?  This  in  broad  noon-day 
was  something  more  than  the  glory  which  shone  round  the 
shepherds  on  the  holy  night  of  the  Incarnation ;  it  was  a  shin- 
ing forth,  though  still  bedimmed  for  mortal  eye,  of  that  light  in 
Avhich  God  dwelleth,  and  in  which  the  God-man  now  dwelleth 
also. 

But  this  light  shines  only  that  it  may  call  light  out  of  the 
darkness  of  a  rebellious  sinner's  heart ;  in  order  to  the  revelation 
of  tlie  knowledge  of  the  glory  of  God  in  the  face,  that  is,  in  the 
person  of  Jesus  Christ.  And  who  is  it  that  first  encounters  this 
light,  with  its  sudden  and  mai'vellous  conviction?  The  man  who 
had  been  marked  out  to  that  end  by  God's  good  pleasiu'e  from  his 
mother's  Avomb,  the  chosen  Paul !  This  single  name  sets  before 
us  the  whole  man,  the  elect  instrument,  the  great  Apostle  of 
the  Gentiles  (although  Samaria  and  the  Ethiopian  eunuch  had 
already  heard  the  Word,  and  Peter  in  the  house  of  Cornelius 
wU  make  the  first  evident  beginning) — the  mighty  champion 
and  labourer,  who  laboiured  more  than  they  all.  We  cannot 
agree  with  the  \iew — pushed  to  its  extreme  by  Baxungarten — 
wliich  sets  the  Gentile  Apostolate,  thus  introduced,  over  against 
the  Israelite  Twelve.  For  this  we  find  no  sm-e  foundation  in 
Scriptm'e ;  but  it  was  undoubtedly  a  great  and  new  thing,  that 
such  a  blasphemer  and  persecutor  should  be  made  a  witness  for 
the  Lord.  He  w^as  not,  however,  a  thirteenth  Apostle  of  a  new 
and  distinct  order  for  the  Church  of  the  Gentiles ;  the  Twelve 
were  themselves  sent  forth  into  all  the  world,  and  unto  all  the 
nations;  and  even  the  New  Jerusalem,  Rev.  xxi.  14,  knows 
^  In  the  Greek,  Uuvov^  an  expression  familiar  to  St  Luke. 


12  TO  SAUL  THE  PERSECUTOR. 

only  the  Twelve  Apostles  of  the  Lamb  (not  of  Israel).  But  he 
was  that  other,  already  projihesied  of  in  Ps.  cix.  8,  whom  the 
Lord  Himself — in  opposition  to  the  premature,  uncommanded, 
and  therefore  invalid  human  choice  (Gal.  i.  1)  of  Matthias — 
reserved  to  be  appointed  in  place  of  the  traitor  Judas.  The 
latter  was  a  representative  and  forerunner  of  tlie  Jewish  people, 
which  rejected  Jesus ;  the  former  was  a  iy^Q  and  first-fruit  of 
the  Jews  who  were  to  be  converted,  and  many  of  whom  were 
converted  even  in  his  missionary  labom-s  among  the  Gentiles. 
Wliat  a  man,  and  what  a  position  in  the  kingdom  of  God 
assigned  to  him — condescended  to,  and  won,  and  prepared  in 
so  wonderful  a  manner !  Fu'st,  he  receives  this  revelation  as 
the  representative  of  all  the  Jews  of  that  time  who,  under  all 
their  disgviise  of  enmity,  were  yet  susceptible  of  grace.  Then, 
as  the  witness  to  all  men  (Acts  xxii.  15  ;  Col.  i.  18),  wdio  should, 
with  that  same  useful  human  learning  which  in  itself  he  knew 
how  to  despise  and  reject,  abase  the  lofty  ones  of  this  world 
before  the  Imowledge  of  God  in  Christ  (2  Cor.  x.  5) ;  who 
should  be  a  fomider  of  systematic  doctrine  in  the  Church,  so  far 
as  the  Church  would  need  such  system — thus  standing  between 
the  practical  Peter,  and  the  mystical,  consu^mmating  John.  Fin- 
ally, as  one  whose  immediate  call  from  above  should  vindicate, 
for  all  futurity,  the  Lord's  supreme  right  to  establish  new 
beginnings  of  regimen ;  to  raise  up  a  reforming  Apostolate 
without  succession,  to  be  renewed  at  His  o^vn  good  pleasure 
when  circumstances  may  require. 

But  the  first  point  which  here  offers  itself  to  our  attention 
is  this,  that  it  is  an  enemy  and  a  persecutor  who  receives  the 
first  condescending  word  from  the  merciful  High  Priest  in 
heaven.  Not  only  will  He  not  cast  out  any  that  come  to  Him 
— but  He  Himself  seeks  and  finds,  in  all  ages.  His  lost  and 
wandering  sheep.  Thus  He  transforms  the  enemy  into  a 
witness  and  followei*,  whose  personality,  beyond  that  of  any 
other,  sets  before  us  the  idea  and  the  reality  of  the  discipleship 
of  Christ  (1  Cor.  xi.  1).  [Millions  have  felt  and  are  feeling 
that,  especially  through  the  life  of  this  Paul,  so  copiously  un- 
folded in  Scripture,  life  in  Christ  and  Christ  Himself  are  most 
blessedly  and  mightily  brought  home  to  them.  The  Lord  pre- 
pared him  for  Himself  and  His  purposes,  out  of  a  Saiil  '  breath- 
ing out  threatenings  and  slaughters  against  His  saints ! '     Thus 


ACTS  IX.  4-6;   XXII.  7-10;   XXVI.  14-16.  13 

His  first  personal  speaking  manifestation  gives  us  a  pledge  of 
that  ruling  in  which  the  King's  sharp  arrows  pierce  the  heai^ts 
of  His  enemies  (as  the  original  of  Ps.  xlv.  runs),  and  in  which 
He  takes  the  strong  for  His  own  prey.  And  it  is  a  warning 
against  that  premature  judgment  of  unbelievers  and  the  con- 
demned, into  Avhich  oiu'  harshness  or  our  despondency  may 
mislead  us.  There  were  many  Judases  in  Israel;  but  only 
upon  one  did  Jesus  pronomice  the  definitive  sentence.  So 
there  were  many  Saids  converted,  although  their  conversion 
has  not  been  revealed  to  us.  The  Lord  reminds  us  here  of 
Thomas,  but  a  gi'eater  than  Thomas  is  here.  It  is  thus 
that  the  great  Apostle  understands  the  significance  of  his  own 
person  and  life,  when  he  says  at  the  end,  "  Therefore  I  obtained 
mercy,  that  in  me  first  of  all,  Jesus  Christ  might  shew  forth 
all  patience,  for  an  example  to  those  who  should  beheve  on  Him 
unto  eternal  life  ;"  1  Tim.  i.  16. 

But  when  we  refer  the  words  to  our  Lord  Himself,  some- 
thing much  higher  and  deeper  than  anything  we  have  yet  said 
rises  out  of  them.  He  has  testified  from  heaven  the  identity 
of  His  glorified  person  with  the  "  Jesus  of  Nazareth,"  just  as 
the  risen  Lord  had  testified  on  earth,  "  It  is  I  myself ! "  But 
that  is  the  lesser  testmiony ;  and  before  He  utters  the  exalted 
"  I  am  Jesus",  He  has  said,  "  Why  persecutest  thou  Me  "  ?  that 
is,  "  Me  in  my  folloicers,  in  my  ChurcU\  Thus  does  He,  even 
in  His  glory,  identify  Himself  with  His  persecuted  Church, 
with  His  scorned  and  outraged  brethren  ;  sitting  already  upon 
the  throne  as  King,  He  as  it  were  repeats,  confirms,  enlarges, 
and  consummates  the  word  spoken  in  His  final  prophecy  of  the 
judgment,  concerning  what  is  done  to  His  brethren,  Matt.  xxv. 
40-45  ;  seaHng,  even  for  His  saints  in  pei'secution,  the  close  of 
His  great  prayer,  which  He  uttered  while  yet  in  the  flesh — "I  in 
them  "  !  John  xvii.  26.  That  is  the  first  word  from  heaven ;  and 
it  is  itself  like  a  flash  of  liehtnine;  into  the  midst  of  the  world's 
sin  and  confusion,  dividing  asunder,  in  the  most  effectual 
manner,  the  persecutor  and  the  persecuted. 

Suddenly — so  we  read  in  two  accounts.  Here  falls  the 
corner-stone  from  heaven  into  the  persecutor's  path,  but  crushes 
him  not.  Saul  is  struck  and  held  back  in  the  mad  course  of  his 
zeal.  Armed  AA-itli  the  authority  of  the  high  council,  he  would 
push  the  persecution  of  the   Christians,   ah'eady  begun,  into 


14  TO  SAUL  THE  PERSECUTOR. 

strange  cities.  Not  certain  that  he  might  find  any  of  "the 
way  "  (of  rigliteousness  and  of  salvation,  tlie  way  of  the  Lord ; 
see  chs.  xvi.  17,  xviii.  2,5,  xix.  9 — but  which  he  thought  the 
perishable  way  of  eiTor),  he,  nevertheless,  sets  out  to  seek  them, 
wherever  they  might  be,  and  bind  them.  Assuredly,  he  was 
chosen  in  the  eternal  counsel ;  to  this  end  he  was,  on  the  ground 
of  his  personality,  as  created  of  God,  framed  and  prepared; 
and  in  the  process  of  his  life  led  onward  to  meet  the  vocation 
which  was  now  to  be  received.  Assuredly,  as  the  Lord  Him- 
self says  here  to  him  and  to  us,  he  was  already  secretly  in  his 
conscience  laid  hold  on  ;  he  was  generally  no  hypocrite,  like  the 
whited  walls  in  opposition  to  whom  he  can  speak  of  himself,  in 
ch.  xxiii.,  as  haviiig  a  good  conscience  in  his  gi'eat  delusion. 
But,  therefore,  now  he  is  suddenly  seized  from  above  with  more 
urgent  might  by  grace ;  for  now  there  is  certainly  in  him  no 
conscious  preparation  or  susceptibility,  but  the  perfect  opposite. 
There  is  no  doubt  of  conscience  moving  him ;  it  is  simply  his 
purpose  and  burning  desire  to  punish  the  heretics ;  and  what 
could,  in  this  career,  lay  him  low,  and  turn  him  round,  but  the 
seeing  and  hearing  of  the  Just  One,  whom  he  was  persecuting? 
His  powerful  natm'e  needed  a  powerful  assault ;  and,  behold,  for 
such  a  natm'e,  the  Lord  has  such  dealings  in  store.  The  risen 
Lord  was  ready  to  suffer  Himself  to  be  touched  by  Thomas ; 
and  the  exalted  Lord  is  not  too  high  to  condescend  to  Saul — 
and  make  of  him  a  Paul. 

That  which  the  Apostle,  in  ch.  xxii.  6,  introduces  with  a 
simple  and  sublime,  "  And  it  came  to  pass,"  was  not  an  internal 
process,  perceptible  only  to  his  own  spirit:  this  is  proved  by 
what  his  companions  experienced.  According  to  ch.  ix.  7,  they 
heard  a  voice,  but  saw  no  man ;  according  to  ch.  xxii.  9,  they 
saw  the  light,  but  heard  not  the  voice  of  Him  that  spake.  Tliis 
variation  of  expression  implies  no  contradiction  ;  any  more  than 
that,  according  to  ch.  ix.  7,  they  stood,  and  according  to  ch. 
xxvi.  14,  fell  to  the  earth  also.  For,  to  clear  up  the  last  first, 
ch.  xxvi.  relates  that  which  befell  all  before  the  voice;  but 
ch.  ix.  records  that,  after  the  voice,  the  attendants  had  naturally 
lifted  themselves  up  and  were  stanchng  before  Saul  did  so. 
Similarly,  they  saw  and  heard  something,  but  with  only  half 
perception ;  they,  received  the  indefinite  impression  of  a  light 
and  a  soimd :  comp.  John  xii.  28,  29,  and  something  similar, 


ACTS  IX.  4-G;   XXII.  7-10;   XXVI.  14-16.  15 

though  in  a  different  order,  Dan.  x.  7.  The  whole,  if  we 
combine  it  in  one,  means  this  :  They  saio,  indeed,  the  dazzhng 
light,  but  no  man,  that  is,  no  form  and  manifested  person ;  they 
heard,  indeed,  the  sound  as  of  a  loud  voice,  but  they  heard  not 
and  miderstood  not  what  was  said. 

We  read  in  ch.  xxvi.  of  the  flash,  that  it  "shone  round 
about,"  as  in  Luke  ii.  9,  concerning  the  shepherds  of  Bethlehem; 
but  in  chs.  ix.  and  xxii.  there  is  a  stronger  word — literally, 
lightened  around — and  to  this  belongs  the  "  suddenly  "  which 
in  Luke  ii.  13  (it  is  the  same  Greek  word)  is  afterwards  added. 
Said  fell  dowm  immediately,  struck  by  the  awe  of  the  brilliance 
above  the  light  of  the  sim  at  noonday,  with  the  others  to  the 
earth.^  So  he  heard  the  words ;  they  were  for  him  alone. 
That  was  the  fitting  place  for  the  proud  man ;  there,  cast  down 
in  his  prostrate  impotence  and  wretchedness,  unable  to  bear  the 
glance  of  heaven,  the  voice  which  he  hears  seizes  him — that  is, 
not  as  speaking  by  his  side  upon  the  earth,  but  as  from  heaven, 
like  the  hght,  comino;  in  its  direction  from  above.  And  even 
so  he  had  seen  the  form  of  the  Speaker  in  his  first  terror  as 
above  him ;  not  as  one  afterwards  standing  upon  the  earth. 

Or  did  he  only  hear,  and  not  see  the  form  and  coimtenance 
of  the  Lord  ?  So  many  think ;  and  they  seemingly  have  the 
superficially  understood  and  isolated  expression  in  their  favour. 
But  the  contrast  with  the  attendants,  who  saw  no  man,  ch.  ix.  7, 
itself  gives  us  to  miderstand  that  Said  had  seen  some  one. 
Ananias,  however,  speaks  decisively — Jesus,  who  appeared  unto 
thee  (Gr.  was  seen  of  thee) ;  so  Barnabas,  ver.  27,  relates  to 
the  Apostles  that  Saul  had  seen  the-  Lord  in  the  way,  and 
spoken  with  Hun ;  finally,  ch.  xxii.  14  speaks  not  of  a  futm'e 
seeing  and  hearing,  but  of  what  had  already  taken  place. 
Consequently,  St  Luke  relates  partially,  at  the  first,  reser\-ing 
the  rest  for  his  future  account ;  he  conceals  the  mystery  of  the 
seeing  and  hearing,  as  it  were,  in  this  place ;  laying  the  emphasis 
upon  the  words  of.  the  Lord,  without  which  the  seeing  would 
have  been  only  a  stunning  amazement.  But  it  is  obvious  that 
suddenly/ — \\nth  the  first  flash  of  light — Saul  had  also  seen 
the   form   and  the   coimtenance  of   the  Lord.       Indeed,  the 

^  Scarcely  from  his  horse,  as  the  painters  depict  it :  it  would  rather  be 
from  his  ass,  but  even  that  is  only  probable.  Such  circumstances  are  not 
recorded,  as  having  nothing  to  do  with  the  matter. 


16  TO  SAUL  THE  PERSECUTOR. 

overpowered  and  down-stricken  persecutor  did  not  look  up  again 
at  the  Speaker ;  but  he,  nevertheless  (and  this  is  another  proof), 
recognised,  in  His  subsequent  manifestations,  the  Lord  Avhom 
he  had  first  seen. 

And  Jesus  speaks  to  him  in  the  Hehreio  tongue  :  but  this  does 
more  than  merely  define  the  sensibly  heard  speech,  in  opposition 
to  the  inward  spealdng  of  the  spirit,  which  suggests  thoughts 
without  words.  The  Hebrew  tongue  belongs  to  the  identity  of 
the  Person,  who  used  this  language  upon  earth — but  neither  is 
this  enough.  What  the  Hellenized  and  Romanised  Je\Adsh  King 
Agrippa — to  wdiom  St  Paul  expressly  mentioned  it — may  have 
thought  about  that  circumstance,  puts  us  on  the  right  track :  — 
it  involves  the  abiding  recognition  of  the  first-chosen  people  of 
Israel,  and  the  prophetic  word  given  to  them  first  in  the  sacred 
tongue ;  the  prophecy  of  a  retm-n  of  this  people,  and  of  a  final 
full  solution  and  comprehension  of  the  ancient  Scriptm-es; 
all  this  is  testified  to  us  in  the  Lord's  speaking  here  in  the 
Hebrew  tongue.  For,  if  it  is  objected  that  this  "  Hebrew  "  was 
only  the  common  Jewish  tongue  then  spoken,  and  not  the 
language  of  the  Old-Testament  Scripture — it  may  be  replied 
that  the  two  are  inseparable  in  their  significance ;  as  we  know 
that  the  Saviour  upon  the  Cross  uttered  the  language  of  the 
Psalm  in  the  Syro-Chaldaic  version  of  it.  And  now,  at  length, 
after  all  this  introduction  and  preparation,  let  us  hear  the  ivords 
themselves,  which  the  voice  of  Him  aaIio  was  seen  in  the  first 
moment  of  his  amazement  spake  to  the  persecutor  prostrate 
upon  the  groimd. 

Saul  !  Saul  !  why  persecutest  thou  "Mb  ?  The 
mention  of  his  name  indicates  and  seizes  the  whole  inner  man, 
as  lie  was.  We  often  fail  to  understand,  through  all  om-  life, 
our  OAAm  name,  especially  when  the  Avorld  has  prefixed  all  kinds 
of  titles  to  it;  but  when  God  calls  a  man  by  his  name,  the 
true  form,  character,  and  spint  of  the  man  is  laid  bare  befoi'e 
the  light  of  His  countenance.  And  here  the  Lord,  Avliom,  as 
the  glorified  Son  of  God,  the  little  company  of  Plis  worshippers 
addressed  already  before  the  Pentecost  as  "  knowing  all  hearts", 
utters  into  the  heart  and  conscience  of  Saul  a  word  of  thunder, 
followang  the  glance  of  lightning,  whicli  rent  all  the  vestments 
of  his  disguise.  If  in  this  thunder,  which  began  his  aAvakening 
by  fear,  there  was  a  prelude  of  the  final  judgment,  Avhen  every 


ACTS  IX.  4-6;   XXII.  7-10;   XXVI.  U-IC.  17 

man  will  be  called  by  his  name,  there  was  also  something  more 
than  that — a  transition  to  mourning  in  the  awful  accusation, 
to  that  appeal  and  invitation  of  troubled  love  which  is  plainly 
heard  in  the  following  question.  This  calling  by  name  from 
heaven  is  more  mighty  and  impressive  than  when  upon  earth 
the  Lord,  who  knew  what  was  in  man,  uttered  His  "Zaccheus!" 
or  "  Simon,  Simon  !  "  or  "  Martha,  Martha !  "  We  do  not 
read  of  any  other  enemy  or  mibeliever  addi-essed  by  name,  ex- 
cepting the  Pharisee  Simon,  Luke  vii.  40,  whom  His  grace  was 
by  that  very  addi'ess  really  approaching,  and  Judas,  still  recog- 
nised as  a  former  "  friend "  and  companion,  even  in  the  hour 
of  His  betrayal.  There  may  be  a  very  little  of  this  same  judi- 
cial tone  of  holy  love — which  endures  the  wrong,  but  assigns 
the  fearful  guilt  to  him  who  offers  it — in  this  appeal  to  Saul. 
But,  at  the  same  time,  the  double  call — which  not  merely 
deepens  its  emphasis,  but,  as  we  prefer  to  think,  already  begins 
to  descend  from  majesty  to  mildness,  from  accusation  to  lament 
— has  something  in  it,  though  of  a  higher  order,  like  the  call 
which  aroused  the  hostess  in  Bethany  from  her  household  dis- 
traction :  "  I  have  somewhat  to  say  unto  thee !  Awake  up 
from  the  distracting  tumult  of  thy  persecution ! "  And  the 
majesty  and  might  of  condescending  love  gains  its  end.  The 
Jirst  open  word  of  the  riseii  Lord  (which  was  preceded  by  the 
gentle  consolatory  preparation  of  a  disguised  voice),  was  also  a 
call  by  name — Mary !  Yet  how  different,  vdth  all  its  resem- 
blance, is  the  first  call  of  the  ascended  Lord ! 

Let  it  not  be  wondered  at  that  we  speak  here — upon  the 
first  words  of  His  mouth — of  the  soul-affecting  tone  of  the 
speech  of  the  exalted  Redeemer,  speaking  down  to  man  upon 
earth.  That  He  still  has  a  mouth  to  speak,  and  may  make  His 
words  heard,  though  no  longer  after  the  earthly  manner  of  the 
organs  which  fonn  the  utterance  here ;  that  He  may  thus  com- 
mmiicate  His  will — at  least  as  certainly  as  Almighty  God  could 
speak  from  heaven,  "  I  am  the  Lord !"  "  Thou  art  My  beloved 
Son!" — is  self-understood.  Or,  rather,  it  ought  to  be  rightly 
imderstood  by  all  believers  who  think  soundly  about  what  they 
believe.  Gess  justly  complains  that  theology  speaks  almost 
always  only  of  corporeity,  when  treating  of  the  permanent 
hmnanity  of  the  glorified  Christ ;  and  says  that^  "  the  humanity 
1  In  the  memorable  book,  "  Die  Lelire  von  dor  Person  Christi,"  s.  266. ' 


18  TO  SAUL  THE  PERSECUTOE. 

must  exist  as  certainly  in  the  inner  nature  of  the  exalted  Saviour; 
even  as  upon  earth  His  was  not  merely  a  hmnan  hodily  life,  but 
also  a  human  life  of  the  soul"  (Heb.  iv.  15;  John  v.  27).  This 
belongs,  indeed,  to  the  least  understood  and  doubtless  most 
difficult  problems  of  knowledge ;  but  it  is  indubitably  true, 
nevertheless.  Consequently,  how  mysterious  soever  the  con- 
nection mediated  by  Almightiness,  between  the  audible  speak- 
ing and  the  corporeity  of  Jesus,  may  be — there  is  a  profounder 
connection  with  His  abiding  personality  in  this,  that  the  voice 
proceeds  from  His  soul,  we  would  rather  say,  from  His  heart; 
and  carries  with  it  "  in  the  manner  of  a  man  who  in  degree  is 
the  Lord  God"  (1  Chron.  xvii.  17),  the  most  li-\dng  and  im- 
pressive ex])ression. 

And  now  for  the  more  plain  and  direct  question,  which  un- 
folds the  charge  already  involved  in  the  invocation  by  name. 
The  whole  internal  contradiction  of  this  more  sincere  Pharisee 
ao;ainst  the  neglected  voice  of  God's  truth,  is  now  condensed 
and  condemned  in  one  short  word — Whi/  j^ersecutest  thou  Me? 
As  it  was  the  Lord's  wont  upon  earth  to  pierce  the  hearts  of 
the  people  by  questions,  humbling  and  judging  them  by  asking 
them  questions  which  woidd  lay  bare  their  conduct  to  them- 
selves, so  it  is  here — though  now  in  its  heavenly  effect  the 
question  is  still  more  powerful.  He  utters  only  a  few  plain 
words  (in  the  Hebrew  only  two) — such  is  the  sublime  heavenly 
majesty  of  His  style  from  the  throne.  To  every  lower  or  higher 
questioner  who  might  have  asked — Wlierefore  persecutest  thou 
the  Nazarenes  ?  Saul  would  have  been  ready  with  many 
reasons  of  conscience  and  duty  to  justify  himself  ;  but  here  he 
can  only  reply  by  an  humbled  and  amazed  question,  which 
seems  already  almost  to  know  the  Lord — AVho  art  thou  ?  Into 
the  secret  depth  of  his  conscience,  where  man  is  found  guilty 
even  in  his  sins  of  ignorance,  the  fearful  interrogatory  penetrates 
and  sticks  fast —  What,  for  what,  or  tcherefore  persecutest  thou 
Me? 

How  wonderful,  for  inexhaustible  contemplation  of  the  de- 
tail in  the  whole,  and  of  the  whole  in  the  detail,  is  everything 
which  is  recorded  in  Scripture  concerning  the  great  acts  and 
words  of  God !  The  individualities  are  so  concrete  and  histo- 
rical, the  words  are  so  simple  in  their  immediate  place  and  con- 
nection, that  a  hundred  expositors  may  fail  to  discern  in  them 


ACTS  IX.  4-6 ;   XXII.  7-10  ;   XXVI.  U-16.  19 

anything  specific  to  expound ;  but,  in  the  comprehensive  view 
of  the  whole  in  Scripture,  the  genuine  scrijjture-expositov  finds 
ever  something  new,  everywhere  something  great  and  significant 
even  in  the  lesser  matters.  So  is  it  with  this  Ji7'st  word  of  the 
Lord  from  heaven — the  first  word  since  the  farewell  words 
before  the  ascension.  He,  the  same  who  testified  that  to  Him 
was  given  all  power  in  heaven  and  on  earth,  testifies  here  in 
the  first  testimony  that  He  bears  from  the  throne  of  His  omni- 
potence, that  He  will  not  use  this  power  in  judgment ;  yea,  that 
He  will  not  use  it  for  the  mere  external  defence  of  His  Chm'ch. 
He  confesses  to  his  persecuted  members  and  brethren ;  but  He 
Himself  endures  pei'secution  in  them,  and  will  win  the  persecutor, 
whom  He  has  borne  with  in  long-suffering,  only  by  the  violence 
of  love  !  His  power  will  make  him  a  disciple  in  no  other  way 
than  that  appointed  in  Matt,  xxviii.  19  for  all  people.  This  is 
also  the  consolation  for  all  the  persecuted,  in  all  the  f utm'e  of 
the  kingdom  of  the  cross  ;  imtil  that  day  when  He  will  come  in 
another  form  from  heaven,  and  speak  and  judge  in  another 
style.  "Wliere  the  Lord  cannot  turn  His  enemies,  and  when 
He  does  not  restrain,  but  suffers  them  to  do  their  violence  to 
Himself  in  His  people — His  people  may  confidently  say,  "  He 
beareth  it ;  let  us  bear  it  too !"  As  the  Lord  in  His  humiliation, 
at  the  beginning  of  His  bodily  indignities,  uttered  but  one  word, 
as  suitable  for  the  whole  passion — Wliy  smitest  thou  Mel  (John 
xviii.  23,)  wliile  He  suffered  himself  to  be  beaten,  and  scom'ged, 
and  put  to  death — so  here  the  exalted  Lord  patiently,  and  with 
the  chastisement  of  gracious  truth  alone,  cries,  with  reference 
to  all  His  future  enemies  to  the  end  of  the  world — Why  perse- 
cutest  thou  Me  ?  Pre-eminently,  and  first  of  all,  this  word  was 
meant  for  blinded  Israel,  who  afterwards  received  the  same 
words  from  the  Apostle  in  all  their  force.  Acts  xxii. 

With  this  all-embracing  brevity  did  St  Luke  record  it  at 
first,  and  similarly  the  Apostle  before  all  the  people  in  Jerusa- 
lem. But,  on  the  second  defence  before  Agrippa,  where  he 
more  confidentially  and  fvilly  opens  the  mystery  of  his  conver- 
sion, he  communicates  what  the  Lord  proceeded  to  add — It  is 

HARD  FOR  THEE  TO  KICK  AGAINST  THE  PRICKS.  This  ex- 
pression is  an  agricultural  proverb,  used  of  the  yoked  oxen 
which,  in  then:  stupidity,  kick  out  against  the  goad  furnished 
with  a  shai*p  point,  and  injure  themselves  the  more.     Thus 


20  TO  SAUL  THE  PERSECUTOR. 

it  simply  means — vainly  and  foolishly  to  oppose  a  superior 
power,  to  one's  o\\ti  injury.  The  proverb  occurs  in  Latin  and 
Greek  authors ;  the  tragic  poets  use  it  of  impotent  opposition 
to  the  gods ;  the  Syrians  appear  also  to  have  had  such  a  phrase, 
and  thus  it  became  known  probably  to  the  Hebrews ;  at  any 
rate  it  was  known  to  Saul,  who  was  versed  in  foreign  literature ; 
but  we  would  not  go  so  far  as  to  say  that  the  Lord  had  this  in 
mind,  speaking  to  Saul  as  a  learned  man.  For,  the  Hebrew 
words  proceed  simply  onwards ;  they  only  lay  open  more 
plainly,  and  more  condescendingly,  and  in  their  progi'ession 
more  piercingly,  that  which  was  already  contained  in  the  depths 
of  the  previous  word,  and  its  sublime  antithesis — Why  perse- 
cutest  tliou — Me  ?  That  which  the  question  had  pressed  upon 
the  conscience  is  now  brought  out  into  full  prominence  for  the 
understanding — far  too  powerful  for  thee  !  Moreover,  the  folly 
and  the  guilt  is  laid  bare,  which  would  proudly  defend  itself 
against  this  akeady  felt  inferiority  of  power. 

While  we  are  dwelling  upon  the  circumstance  that  our  Lord 
not  only  spoke  in  the  Hebrew  tongue,  but  also  condescended  to 
speak  to  men  in  their  own  proverbial  expressions,  infusing  Into 
them  a  new  meaning,  it  is  important  that  we  shotdd  penetrate 
into  the  specific  and  new  meaning  which  the  present  proverb 
derives  from  His  use  of  It.  The  scruple  might  be  raised — Did 
Saul  already  kick  against  the  pricks  when  he  was  persecuting 
Jesus,  whom  he  did  not  as  yet  know  as  the  Mighty  One  in 
heaven  ?  But  it  may  be  g-nswered  that  the  sinner  who  had 
fought  in  his  blindness  against  the  poWer,  righteousness,  and 
truth  of  God,  must  have  assuredly  marked  and  discerned  the 
high  autlwrity  against  which  he  in  his  vain  folly  was  struggling, 
although  he  did  not  as  yet  plainly  see  loho  wielded  the  sceptre ; 
that,  consequently,  warning  thrusts  must  have  already  reached 
the  conscience  of  Saul,  as  generally  from  the  justice  of  God,  so 
specifically  from  the  bright  self-attestation  of  the  angel-coun- 
tenance of  Stephen,  and  the  undeniable  sanctity  of  the  perse- 
cuted "  saints'^ — warnings  which,  however  half-imconsclously, 
miist  yet  have  have  been  certainly  felt.  Few  Nazarenes  had 
blasphemed ;  most  of  them  confessed,  even  amid  torments,  the 
name  which  he  fought  against ;  yea,  this  hated  and  persecuted 
name  approved  itself,  in  Its  living  wonderfiil  power,  as  the  staff 
of  a  superior  against  the  prick  of  which  he  vainly  kicked,  only 


ACTS  IX.  4-G  ;   XXII.  7-10  ;    XXVI.  14-1 G.  21 

the  more  wounding  his  own  mind  and  conscience  thereby.  The 
Lord  does  not  merely  "  testify  to  him  the  objective  fruitlessness 
of  his  opposition  to  the  Church"  (as  Schaff  thinks)  — that  was 
akeady  contained  in  the  revelation  of  His  heavenly  power  and 
glory ;  but  that  which  in  Saul's  person  (subjectively)  had  made 
itself  felt  as  his  own  hurt,  felt  actually  as  the  rebuking  point 
of  a  goad  nevertheless  m'ged  against  him — that  the  Lord  now 
suddenly  reveals  to  him,  and  throws  light  at  once  upon  the 
past :  "  Why  persecutest  thou  Me,  and  thereby  essentially  only 
thyself?"  But,  from  that  great  moment  when  this  rises  dis- 
tinctly before  his  consciousness,  it  receives  the  stronger  and  fuller 
meaning  for  the  futiure  also  :  "  Wouldst  thou  further  oppose — 
think  how  hard,  vain,  and  ruinous  it  will  be  to  thee  /"  Luther 
has  given  rightly  the  sense  of  the  indefinite  word — It  will  be 
hard  to  thee.  "  Behold,  this  is  My  goad — dost  thou  feel  it  ? 
Wilt  thou  further  deny  thyself  to  JSIe  ?  or,  wilt  thou  obediently 
draw  in  my  yoke,  yield  thyself  up  submissively  to  be  sent  in  ISIy 
service  ?  My  sacred  grace  hath  decreed  to  make  thee  obedient — 
Woe,  woe,  vmto  thee,  if  thou  shouldst  not  follow!  Hard  should 
it  be  to  thee,  incomparably  harder  than  hitherto  :" — this  and 
this  only  the  Lord  says ;  for  impossible  Saul's  disobedience  was 
not  even  now ;  of  an  irresistible  grace  we  can  by  no  means 
think.     (Comp.  ch.  xxvi.  19,  and  Gal.  i.  16.) 

Satisfied  with  this  exposition  of  the  words,  as  it  has  always 
\n\\\  more  or  less  clearness  been  perceived,  we  do  not  think  it 
necessary  to  turn  aside  to  any  profound  concomitant  meaning ; 
such  as  that,  for  instance,  of  Baumgarten,  who  refers  the  whole 
saying  only  to  the  Pharisee's,  afterw^ards  the  Apostle's,  warfare 
with  the  law}  Otherwise,  he  needlessly  objects,  the  figure, 
when  appKed  to  Saul's  past  and  futm'e  relation  to  Jesus,  wovJd 
be  inappropriate,  as  making  Jesus  the  driver  with  a  threatening 
goad,  and  Paul  the  ox  performing  his  work  from  fear  alone ! 
For,  does  not  the  Lord  here  manifestly  show  Himself — pre- 
viously to  all  else  that  would  afterwards  follow — as  the  INIighty 
One,  with  the  staff  of  authority,  pointed  with  the  prick  which 
should  pierce  the  conscience  ?  And  does  not  the  figm*e  approve 
its  truth  in  this,  that  the  question  is  one  of  the  yoJce  of  obedi- 

^  In  harmony  -svith  his  general  view  that  "  all  the  thoughts  which  agitated 
the  mind  of  Saiil,  in  consequence  of  the  Lord's  address  to  him,  must  have 
centred  in  the  Law  " — against  which  Lechler  rightly  protests. 


22  TO  SAUL  THE  PERSECUTOR. 

ence  ?  Thus  it  is,  quite  simply,  that  the  Lord  testifies  His  own 
power,  the  opposition  to  which  can  result  only  in  the  hurt  of 
him  who  opposes ;  but,  because  this  power,  before  as  hereafter, 
is  the  power  of  patient  love.  He  testifies  further  that  the  goad 
of  the  driver  is  the  staff  of  the  Good  Shepherd,  having  no  other 
design  than  to  take  away  the  sin,  through  grace  which  rigor- 
ously and  zealously  seeks  to  effect  its  pm*pose.  The  holy 
Theresa  finely  said  (as  Gossner  quotes)  :  "  Lord,  I  sooner 
became  weary  of  injuring  Thee,  than  Thou  of  forgiving  my 
injury" — but  it  might  have  been  substituted — "  than  Thou  of 
withstanding,  in  order  that  Thou  mightest  be  able  to  forgive." 

All  this  Paul  shortly  afterwards  well  understood.  But  in 
the  first  shock  of  sudden  amazement,  the  whole  saying,  despite 
the  final  penetrating  clause,  was  almost  unintelligible.  He 
feels  and  suspects,  but  does  not  at  once  clearly  understand ; 
hence,  in  his  deep  presentiment,  he  utters  the  hasty  question. 
Who  art  Thou,  Lord  ?  For  he  had,  hitherto,  persecuted  Jesus 
ignorantly  in  unbelief  (1  Tim.  i.  13) — it  had  not  been  his 
purpose  to  fight  mlfully  against  God.  If,  on  the  instant  after 
the  manifestation  (which  it  was  impossible  for  him  to  continue 
gazing  at),  he  could  hardly  think  otherwise  than  that  it  was 
Jehovah  Himself  in  the  glory  of  His  revelation  (the  Shelcinah, 
according  to  the  Jewish  expression),  or  at  least  an  angel  in 
human  form,  who,  in  the  name  and  authority  of  Jehovah,  called 
him, — ^yet  the  "  Me  "  was,  for  the  moment,  incomprehensible ; 
and  in  that  his  relative  innocence,  in  connection  with  his  guilt, 
revealed  itself.  Had  the  Lord  appeared  to  any  of  those  who 
said,  "  This  is  the  heir,  come  let  us  kill  him ! "  it  would  have 
fallen  upon  him  as  the  thmider  of  judgment ;  at  most,  he  would 
have  been  able  to  cry  with  the  devils,  "  What  hast  thou  to  do 
with  me,  Jesus,  Thou  Son  of  the  Most  High  God  ?  Art  Thou 
come  to  torment  me  before  the  time  ?"  But  Saul,  who  had  not 
wilfully  or  consciously  persecuted  the  Messiah,  or  the  Person 
who  might  be  the  IMessiah,  can,  lying  upon  the  ground  with 
covered  face,  find  strength  to  utter  his  trembling  question, 
"  Lord,  who  sayest  that  I  persecute  thee.  Who  art  thou  ?  Not 
the  God  of  Israel,  for  whose  honoui'  I  thought  myself  zealous. 
Who  art  thou,  O  heavenly  One,  who  thus  art  one  with  the 
Nazarenes,  as  if  thou  suffcredst  in  their  sufferings  ?  "  But  this 
veiy  thought  leads  us  to  the  other  side  of  the  question — that 


ACTS  IX    4-G  ;   XXII.  7-10 ;   XXVI.  14-lG.  23 

the  presentiment  of  his  question  needed  only  to  be  brought  out 
and  fully  uttered,  in  order  to  find,  if  the  Lord  had  kept  silence, 
its  own  answer — "Thou  art  Jesus  of  Nazareth!"  He  knew 
so  much,  at  least,  of  "  this  sect,"  that  according  to  their 
belief  Jesus  was  now  enthroned  in  heaven.  Therefore,  while 
he  might  have  thought  and  said.  Who  art  thou.  Lord,  from 
heaven,  whom  I  can  have  persecuted  f  he  restrains  this  last, 
because  that  itself  would  instantly  give  him  the  answer,  before 
the  Lord,  confirming  his  o^vn  thoughts,  expressly  uttered  it.^ 

I  AM  Jesus  of  Nazaeeth,  whom  thou  peesecutest  ! 
Who  other  than  He  whom  thou  hast  persecuted?  The  Lord 
does  not  harshly  break  off — "Tarry  thou  on  the  ground,  and 
reflect ;  this  first  word  is  enough  for  thee  ! "  With  more  and 
more  gracious  condescension,  He  enters  into  the  ordinary  col- 
loquy of  word  and  answer.  First  comes  the  specific  repetition 
and  emphasis  of  his  own  word,  Wliom  thou  persecutest ! 
although  this  comes  out  only  after,  in  the  first  part  of  the  sen- 
tence, it  had  been  hinted  at.  The  Lord  now  calls  Himself 
from  heaven  by  the  name  which  the  Spirit  since  the  day  of 
Pentecost  had  glorified,  and  by  which  the  angels  at  the  empty 
sepulchre  had  called  Him  (Mark  xvi.  6)  :  the  name  of  hmnilia- 
tion,  rmder  which  Saul  had  persecuted  Him,  is  by  Him  in  His 
glory  retained  and  confirmed.  Jesus  of  Nazai-eth !  That 
further  testifies,  in  the  most  solemn  manner,  the  identity  of  His 
present  person  with  the  person  of  the  humbled  One,  even  to 
the  years  of  childhood  at  Nazareth,  to  which  He  looks  back 

^  The  question  is  here  raised,  whether  Saul  had  not  previously  known 
Jesus,  whether  he  had  not  seen  Him  in  Jerusalem  or  elsewhere.  This  is 
quite  possible  in  itself  ;  but  His  present  form  would  not  at  once  recall  any- 
such  acquaintance  with  His  person.  That  in  2  Cor.  v.  16,  this  acquaintance 
is  meant,  appears  to  us  a  very  doubtful,  indeed,  an  absolutely  wrong  ex- 
position. For,  first,  the  Apostle  speaks  there  hypothetically — only  putting 
a  case  ;  and  then,  to  know  Christy  i.e.,  the  Messiah  (^yivmy.av).^  is  something 
very  different  from  having  seen,  and  personally  known,  the  human  person. 
St  Paul  had  formerly  a  blind  Jewish  knowledge  and  expectation  of  the 
(promised)  Messiah,  after  the  flesh.,  that  is,  "as  the  letter  reveals  Him  to 
the  natural  understanding ; "  this  he  renounces  as  old  and  past,  because  he 
has  found  the  true  Christ  in  Jesus.  Not,  therefore,  as  G.  MiiUer  says, 
"the  form  of  His  humanity  has  vanished  from  my  mind" — he  would 
say  something  very  different.  Assuredly,  in  conclusion.  He  who  appeared 
to  him  at  Damascus  connects  His  quite  otherwise  meant  I  am  Jesus !  not 
with  any  former  knowledge  of  His  person  which  Saul  might  have  had. 


24  TO  SAUL  THE  PEESECUTOE. 

from  the  throne  of  God  in  eternal  glory.  Not  "  Jesus  the 
Chist" — which  was  self -understood  from  the  glorious  appear- 
ance ;  as  also  that  Saul  had  persecuted  Jesus  only  as  the  Christ. 
But  the  Lord  will  not  still  further  oppress  the  man  lying  in  the 
dust,  by  the  name  of  His  might  and  dignity ;  He  mildly  descends 
to  him,  giving  him  courage  and  awakening  his  confidence  in 
the  midst  of  his  punishm^ent.  For,  the  expression  must  have  re- 
called to  him  that  this  "  Jesus  of  Nazareth"  was  once  upon  earth 
the  meek  and  lowly  One,  the  Benefactor  and  Healer  in  Plis 
Divine  power.  Moreover,  Jesus  means,  as  all  who  afterwards 
heard  the  words  would  think  with  Saul,  Helper  and  Savioiu'. 
Thus — "Why  persecutest  thou,  poor  sinner,  the"  only  Helper, 
who  hath  holpen  so  many  and  would  help  thee,  who  pierces 
with  the  goad  only  so  long  as  He  is  opposed?  Why  wult 
thou  not  let  Me  save  thee  and  others  ?  "  The  charge  changes 
into  a  tender  and  sorrowful  lamentation  and  complaint,  once 
more  just  as  in  John  x.  32.  Thus  the  sin  of  Saul  is  forgiven, 
in  the  utterance  of  this  holy  name  of  Jesus,  even  while  that  sin 
is  a  second  time  mentioned.  And  that  name  comes  first — "/ 
am  Jesus  whom  thou  persecutest — only  behold  and  hear  Me 
now ! "  Thus  will  the  Lord  reveal  to  every  Saul,  who  has 
denied  Plim  in  error  that  may  be  repaired.  His  Jesus-name^ 
which  is  still  above  the  name  of  Christ,  and  in  lohicli  every 
knee  shall  bow. 

Such  gracious  condescension  has  made  it  possible  that  Saul, 
seized  and  rendered  obedient  by  this  second  appeal,  should  put 
the  question.  Lord,  what  ivilt  Thou  that  I  should  do  ?  (ch.  xx., 
shorter.  What  must  I  do,  Lord  ?)  He  does  not  remain  terrified 
and  amazed  by  the  thought  of  the  twice-proclaimed  persecution 
of  this  Lord  now  appearing  to  him,  and  cry  in  anguish — Alas, 
what  have  I  done  I  For,  only  this  manifestation  M'as  wanting 
to  make  him  turn  to  his  denied  Lord,  with  as  much  decision  as 
had  been  shown  in  his  persecution,  and  ask  what  might  be  the 
will  of  the  Lord  whom  he  now  knew.  Although  the  bitter 
struggle  was  yet  to  come,  there  already  flowed  into  his  heart  a 
first  breath  of  consolation  and  forgiveness ;  so  that  he  looks 
forward,  forgetting  the  things  behind,  and  can  offer  himself 
and  his  whole  life  to  Ilim  whom  he  had  persecuted,  with  the 
question,  almost  childlike  in  its  confidence — What  is  Thy  will 
from  this  time,  O  Lord,  now  even  7vy  Lord  ?     From  this  time 


ACTS  IX.  4-6 ;   XXII.  7-10 ;   XXVI.  14-10.  25 

— this  lias  to  liirn,  now,  the  first  and  most  pressing  significance ; 
because  he  is  at  the  gate  of  Damascus,  as  a  persecutor  sent  by 
the  comicil:  "What  shall  I  do  now  ?  Shall  I  tiu'n  back  ?  And 
whither  ?     Shall  I  go  on  ?     And  what  to  do  then  1 " 

Entering  graciously  into  this,  and  bringing  the  affecting 
conversation  nearer  to  its  end,  the  Lord  answers  him  : — St 
Paul,  in  the  narrative  before  the  Jews,  ch.  xxii.,  first  acknow- 
ledges Him  by  this  7iame.     Aeise  and  go  into  the  city, 

AND  it  shall  be  TOLD  THEE  WHAT  THOU  MUST  DO  (ch.  Xxii., 
INTO  DAMASCUS  —  OF  ALL  THINGS  WHICH  ARE  APPOINTED 
FOR   THEE    TO    DO.      Ch.    XXvi.,    RiSE    AND    STAND    UPON   THY 

feet).  The  first  words.  Arise!  (lience  quoted  more  emphatically 
in  ch.  xxvi. ;  comp.  Ezek.  ii.  1)  has  here  gTeat  significance, 
much  more  than  when  it  formerly  came  from  the  lips  of  Jesus. 
The  voice  of  the  Lord  first  threw  him  to  the  earth,  it  now 
lifts  him  up  again — both,  in  this  extraordinary  revelation  of 
His  power,  in  quick  succession.  "  Go — the  same  way  which 
thou  wast  going,  into  the  same  Damascus,  but  as  another  man 
now,  who  hast  fallen  down  before  Me,  and  art  risen  up  again! 
Thou  shalt  at  once  do  something  ;  I  take  thee  at  thy  word,  it  is 
My  loill.  Much  is  appointed  to  thee,  yea,  according  to  eternal 
counsel,  to  thee,  the  persecutor  and  blasphemer,  which  thou 
shalt  do  in  thy  new  life,  in  thy  new  energy',  in  My  service 
— all  this  will  be  told  thee.  The  supreme  order  is  given  and 
sealed;  but  all  the  rest  My  ministers  will  care  for."  What 
an  explanation  this,  leaving  so  much  to  be  supposed,  but 
concealing  all  in  a  simple  word,  which  Saul  could  not  at  once 
understand. 

Damascus,  the  oldest  city  of  which  we  have  any  knowledge — 
mentioned  as  early  as  the  history  of  Abraham,  afterwards  the 
metropolis  of  the  enemies  of  Israel,  and,  later,  of  the  fanatical 
Mohammedan  power — was  foreappointed  to  be  the  scene  of  a 
mighty  testimony  of  Jesus  Christ  (see  Acts  ix.  20,  21).  But 
the  Lord  does  not  say,  as  afterwards  to  Ananias,  and  as  the 
angel  to  Cornelius — Into  this  or  that  street,  into  this  or  that 
house.  He  mentions  to  him  no  name.  He  begins  at  once  to 
exercise  him  by  the  test  of  obedience  m  faith.  He  who  had 
asked,  in  harmony  with  his  impetuous  character,  what  new 
thing  he  should  do,  is  required,  in  this  new  beginning,  to  xoait, 
to  learn,  to  he  told.     He  does  not  know  that  the  fulfilment  Avill 


26  TO  SAUL  THE  PERSECUTOR. 

take  place  as  soon  as  it  actually  did  ;  he  must  first  in  silent  waitinor 
turn  to  account  that  which  had  already  occiuTcd.  The  origina. 
does  not  say,  One  will  tell  thee;  but  still  more  indefinitely,  It 
shall  be  told  thee.  By  whom  ?  ]\Iight  it  be  by  the  Lord  Him- 
self ?  The  dismissing  reference  to  some  one  in  the  city  gives 
him  plainly  to  understand  that  that  cannot  be  meant.  Thus  it 
was  by  men,  and  by  whom  but  by  some  of  those  disciples  of 
the  Lord  whom  he  had  come  to  persecute  1  Even  Christ  Him- 
self points  to  His  witnesses,  as  the  angel  referred  Cornehus  to 
Peter.  Not  merely,  "  He  that  persecuteth  Mine  persecuteth 
Me,"  but  also,  "  He  that  heareth  Mine  heareth  Me  !" 

As  the  Lord  had  in  the  first  word  confessed  His  people,  so 
He  confesses  them  now  in  the  closing  word.  This  expression 
is  better  here,  and  less  easily  perverted,  than  the  too  favourite 
word  church ;  for  where  was  at  that  time  the  church — as  the 
term  is  now  used  distinctively  from  the  congregation — with  its 
confirmed,  appointed,  ruling  constitution  ?  The  convert  is 
aftei'wards  directed  to  the  Scripture,  but  that  does  not  come 
till  after:  first  he  must  have  living  intercom"se  with  those 
Avho  live  in  faith,  in  order  to  the  opening  of  his  eyes. 

He  is  sent  to  one  or  to  some  of  the  disciples  in  Damascus — 
thus  much  he  imderstands — whom  he  must  patiently  wait  for. 
Let  it  be  observed,  not  to  the  Apostles  ;  for  he  is  immediately 
called  to  be  an  Apostle  himself.  Nevertheless,  he  must  subject 
himself  to  the  heretics  whom  he  had  before  scorned ;  he  must 
bow  down  before  the  j^ersecuted  congi'egation,  and  receive  from 
them  the  fiui;her  communications  of  his  Lord's  will.  Thus  the 
extraordinary  and  miraculously-begun  work  of  his  conversion 
must  have  a  regular  and  unmiraculous  issue  ;  the  miracle  is  re- 
duced back  to  ordinary  limitations ;  the  common  order  is  placed 
on  a  level  with  the  miraculous,  rather  it  is  confinned  and 
sanctified  in  its  place  above  it.  Thus,  finally,  the  special 
honour  done,  as  it  were,  to  the  proud  Pharisee,  is  compensated 
or  2)arallel(xl  by  his  taking  his  place  below  the  despised  Naza- 
renes,  in  order  to  strengthen  and  maintain  his  humility.  For, 
alas !  not  every  one  who  lias  bowed  down  before  the  Lord 
Himself,  submits  to  bow  down  before  men  for  the  Lord's  sake, 
and  before  the  Lord  in  the  person  of  men. 

The  Lord  often  thus  makes  His  own  beginning,  while  He 
leaves  the  prosecution  to  His  disciples.     Thus  He  still  greets 


ACTS  IX.  10-16.  27 

His  children  upon  earth  with  greeting  which  strengthens  their 
faith,  while  He  commits  to  them  still  sometimes  a  captive 
enemy — the  strong  and  learned  made  blind  and  praying,  for 
their  further  care  and  nom'ishmeut. 

Finally,  there  is  in  the  expression,  "  what  is  appointed  to 
thee" — as  we  find  it  in  the  exacter  record,  ch.  xxii. — a  refer- 
ence to  the  Father,  precisely  as  in  Matt.  xx.  23.  We  must  not 
miderstand  merely  "  appointed  by  Me  ;^'  but  the  glorified  Lord 
gives  the  glory  to  the  Father ;  and  the  word  of  Ananias,  ch. 
xxii.  14,  coincides  with  this.  In  the  later  appearance,  ch.  xxvi. 
16,  the  Lord  Himself  gives  His  orders  to  His  servant  and  wit- 
ness ;  but  in  the  first  announcement  of  Himself  as  "  Jesus  of 
Nazareth,"  so  condescendingly  lowly  with  all  its  majesty,  He 
refers  all  at  the  conclusion  to  His  God  and  Father: — All  shall 
be  said  to  thee  by  men,  that  is  appointed  for  thee  by  God. 
For  this  is  the  confirmed  and  everlasting  rule  :  whosoever  asks 
his  Lord  in  earnest  what  he  should  do,  shall  have  in  His  ways 
a  sure  answer  given  him  even  through  men. 

O  CD 


H. 

ANAJ^IAS'  COMMISSION". 

(Acts  ix.  10-16.) 

Among  the  multitudes  of  Jews  in  Damascus  (St  Luke,  in 
vers.  2  and  20,  speaks  of  synagogues  in  the  plural)  there  were 
disciples  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  (vers.  19-25), — though  probably 
an  insignificant  little  company.  The  persecution  which  Saul 
had  with  a  strong  hand  undertaken  in  Jerusalem  had  far  dis- 
persed the  persecuted,  and  sent  them  widely  forth  as  preachers 
of  the  Word.  But  we  must  not  think  of  any  orderly  ecclesi- 
astical relation  among  these  few  disciples  at  Damascus,  nor  of 
any  separation  from  the  Jewish  people,  further  than  then*  con- 
fession of  Jesus  absolutely  required.  They  remained,  as  we 
find  it  for  a  long  time  within  Israel,  Jews  in  all  observance  of 
the  law.  This  is  expressly  stated,  ch.  xxii.  12,  of  Ananias; 
as  also  his  good  report,  the  consideration  paid  to  his  irreproach- 
able, respectable  character  among  all  the  Jews  of  the  city,  and 


28  ANANIAS*  COMMISSION. 

which  liis  faith  in  Jesus  had  not  yet  interrupted.  Conse- 
quently, although  this  "  disciple"  is  not  called  an  elder  of  the 
community,  he  is  one  in  reality;  and  is  chosen,  as  the  worthiest 
representative  of  the  discipleship  in  the  place,  to  receive  and 
admit  Saul  into  the  fellowship  of  Christians.  But  this  transi- 
tion from  the  miraculous  to  regular  order  requires  also  on  the 
part  of  Ananias — in  order  that  his  mistrust  of  the  persecutor 
may  be  taken  away,  and  still  more  that  he  might  enter  fully 
into  the  Lord's  plan  and  commission,  and  venture  to  approach 
Saul — a  fiirther  extraordinary  and  miraculous  intervention. 
It  takes  place,  therefore,  though  in  a  lower  degree ;  that  is,  by 
an  appearance  and  communication  of  the  Lord  in  vision. 

This  expression  has  here,  as  is  obvious,  not  the  general 
meaning  which  it  has  in  Acts  vii.  31,  Matt.  xvii.  9,^  where  it 
refers  to  an  appearance  from  the  other  world  in  opposition  to 
ordinary  perception — in  which  sense  Saul's  seeing  and  hearing 
before  Damascus  was  a  vision.  But  it  connects  itself,  accord- 
ing to  a  more  restricted  use  of  the  phrase,  with  the  Old  Testa- 
ment manner  of  speech,  as  found  already  in  Acts  ii.  17,  in 
which  the  word  of  the  Lord  to  Abraham  (Gen.  x^^  1)  was 
heard  "in  a  vision"  in  the  night,  as  ver.  7  shows.  The  pro- 
mise in  the  Prophet  Joel  (ch.  iii.  1)  mentions  prophecy,  dream, 
and  vision  as  the  three  orders  of  Divine  revelation ;  as  in 
Num.  xii.  6  the  Lord  declares  that  He  vdW  make  Himself 
known  to  other  prophets  in  vision  or  dream,  but  expressly  dis- 
tinguishes this  from  the  immediate  revelation  reserved  for 
Moses — the  speaking  face  to  face,  the  being  seen  in  face  or 
form.  What  the  stricter  relations  of  these  may  be  is  matter  of 
higher  experience,  and  cannot  here  be  thoroughly  opened  up ; 
we  merely  remark,  that  the  very  distinct  dream  might  pass 
over  into  the  vision,  with  a  certain  removal  of  the  distinction, 
but  that  this  distinction  must  be  maintained  in  the  case  of  a 
vision  seen,  as  here,  during  the  day.  As  Cornelius  and  Peter 
beheld  their  visions  in  the  day  and  waking — although,  in  order 
to  their  susceptibility  for  the  event,  raised  out  of  ordinary 
wakefulness — so  most  probably  did  Ananias  here.  It  is  not 
said — In  a  vision  of  the  tiicjld ;  and,  according  to  ver.  17,  when 
he  received  the  commission  he  went  on  the  same  day,  without 

^  And  diifers  in  the  Greek  (oVTsea/a  for  opx/^ix,  as  in  Acts  xxvi.  19),  yet 
with  the  same  meaning  in  xxiv.  23. 


ACTS  IX.  10- IG.  21) 

interval  or  hesitation,  to  execute  it.  But,  finally,  it  must  not 
be  overlooked  that  we  do  not  read  of  his  being  in  the  spirit; 
this  is  a  further  distinction  between  these  "  visions "  of  the 
history  of  the  Acts,  and  the  later  more  profomidly  internal  m- 
tercoui'se  of  the  Lor^  with  His  Apostles. 

The  Lord  said  in  the  vision,  Ananias  !  Here  once  calling 
by  name  is  enough ;  his  name,  uttered  in  so  wonderful  a  man- 
ner, introduces  the  vision,  excites  and  places  him  in  a  state  in 
which  there  was  certainly  some  kind  of  seeing  the  appearing 
Lord.  For,  on  the  one  hand,  the  \dsion  of  Ananias  would  not 
be  less  plain  than  that  of  Saul,  who  saw  this  man  coming  in  to 
him;  and,  on  the  other,  St  Lulce  relates  the  proceeding  with 
the  suj^position,  not  expressed,  that  Ananias  at  the  first  call 
knew  the  Lord  Jesus,  and  afterwards  speaks  to  Him  as  such 
— ^^Thy  saints,  who  call  on  Thy  name."  We  cannot  perfectly 
understand  all;  but  this  much  is  plain,  that,  without  having 
any  previous  experience  of  any  such  vision,  the  faithful  dis- 
ciple, accustomed  to  the  communion  of  the  heart  with  his  Lord, 
is  raised  from  the  sudden  shock  of  the  appearance  to  the  con- 
fident beholding  of  Him  who  appears,  and  can  reply.  Here  am 
I,  Lord !  It  may  be  that  Ananias  was  one  of  those  who  had 
seen  the  Lord  in  his  visits  to  Jerusalem  at  the  feasts — possible 
that  he  was  one  of  His  original  disciples^ — and  consequently 
tliat  the  voice  and  fonn  of  the  Lord  would  recall  Him  to  his 
remembrance.  Be  that  as  it  may,  this  vision  and  colloquy 
rests  upon  the  same  foundation  as  the  revelation  to  Saul,  con- 
firmed and  sealed  as  that  is  by  an  enth'e  apostolical  life. 

In  the  "  Here  am  1" — which  occurs  so  often  from  Abraham 
in  Gen.  xx.  downwards,  as  the  reply  to  the  Lord's  summons  by 
name,  and  the  immediate  vise  of  which  sprang  from  Ananias' 
familiarity  with  Scripture — was  contained  the  questions,  "What 
is  Thy  will?  Wliat  am  I  to  do?"  And  the  Lord  said  to 
him,  "  Akise,  and  go  into  the  stkeet  which  is  called 
Straight,  and  inquire  in  the  house  of  Judas  for  one 
Saul  of  Tarsus."  It  is  not  that  Ananias  also  had  fallen 
do^\^l ;  the  arise  simply  belong,  in  the  familiar  speech,  to  the 
"•oino;  and  executino;  his  errand  at  once.^     The  Lord  assmnes 

^  Compare  the  expression,  probably  to  be  understood  in  the  same  way, 
concerning  Mnason,  an  old  disciple,  a,px»iu  fictdyirfi,  Acts  xxi.  16. 
2  In  tLo  Greek  they  axe  closely  unite*!,  di-omrsU  -royiv^^irt. 


30  ANANIAS'  COMMISSION. 

the  tone  of  familiar  speech,  as  if  all  was  passing  in  common  life, 
and  condescends  to  exact  sj)ecification  of  the  street  and  house  ; 
for  this  was  now  necessary,  in  order  to  give  Ananias  a  distinct 
impression,  and  still  more  to  obviate  the  premature  comments 
which  would  have  resulted  from  any  particular  inquiries  in  the 
city — "  The  Christian  Ananias  has  sought  out  the  persecutor 
Saul !"  Wliat  the  two  have  to  do  together  requires  at  first 
perfect  secrecy;  until,  after  certain  days  (ver.  19),  Saul  begins, 
to  the  astonishment  bf  all,  to  preach  concerning  Jesus  in  the 
synagogues.  After  Luther's  inexact  translation — die  richtige 
Gasse — many  have  found  a  fanciful  allusion  to  him  who  was 
now  brought  into  the  right  way ;  but  this  distvu'bs  here  the  plain 
simplicity  of  the  whole,  in  which  nothing  more  is  meant  than 
the  great  street  of  the  city,  so  called  in  distinction  from  others 
which  did  not  run  so  directly  through  it.  The  host  Judas  was 
not  also  a  Christian,  though  through  his  guest  he  may  have  be- 
come one ;  the  name  here  indicates  only  what  we  should  now 
express  by  the  number  of  the  street.  Because,  finally,  Saul,  like 
Judas,  was  an  ordinary  name,  the  usual  designation  of  Saul  of 
Tarsus  marks  out  one  who  in  every  land,  and  by  Ananias,  was 
known  as  the  notorious  enemy  of  the  Christians. 

Hitherto  the  words  had  been  simple  and  plain,  as  Avhen  a  man 
is  introducing  with  accuracy  an  ordinary  commission ;  but  now 
comes  the  great  declaration, — "Foil,  behold,  he  peayeth!" 
Here  the  for  (which  has  been  softened  away  by  most  expositors) 
retains  its  full  meaning;  the  astonishment  and  affright  of 
Ananias  at  the  mention  of  the  name  Saul  of  Tarsus  is  antici- 
pated— "Thou  shalt  seek  him  without  fear;  thou  shalt  find 
him  Avilling  to 'be  told  ISIy  will."  In  this  Bengel  is  at  fault,  who 
refers  the  for  (which  ob^^ously  gives  a  reason)  to  the  whole 
clause,  and  particularly  to  the  following  sentence  about  his 
having  seen  the  vision.  Surely  the  first  words — he  prayeth  ! 
were  of  themselves  quite  enough  gi'ound  to  establish  the  confi- 
dence of  Ananias.  The  behold  !  places  the  praying  man,  visible 
to  the  Lord,  also,  as  it  were,  before  the  eyes  of  Ananias.'  In 
that  one  thing  everything  is  embraced  and  said !  A  praying 
man  is  never  to  be  feared,  has  ceased  to  be  an  enemy  and 
a  persecutor — that  is  the  first  and  most  obvious  meaning 
for  Ananias  ;  but  it  is  veiy  far  from  being  all  that  the  words 
contained.      Instead  of   the  external  matter  which  St  Luke, 


ACTS  IX.  lO-lG.  31 

ver.  9,  faithfully  recorded  at  first — "He  was  tliree  days  without 
sight,  and  neither  ate  nor  cbank" — the  Lord  mentions  that 
which  He  saw  in  the  inner  man,  and  which  was  only  imaged  and 
expressed  in  the  blindness  arid  fasting.  What  lyrayer  must  this 
of  Saul  liave  been,  through  these  three  days  and  nights  !  We 
cannot  agree  with  Bamngarten,  who  maintains  (against  Bengel) 
that  the  state  of  Saul  dm'ing  tlie  whole  of  the  three  days  is  not 
described  as  being  that  of  prayer ;  but  that  "  the  praying  put 
an  end  to  the  agony  which  had  filled  the  three  days  !"  This 
interpretation  presses  the  for  beyond  its  limits ;  since,  in  that 
case,  if  the  reason  for  the  Lord's  commission  to  Ananias  had 
occiuTed  before,  Ananias  would  have  been  sent  earlier!  We 
confess  that  we  cannot  understand  a  three  days'  "  wrestling"  on 
Saul's  part,  Avliich  was  resolved  at  last  into  prayer — not  being 
itself  prayer  all  through.  "  Lord,  what  wouldst  Thou  have  me 
to  do?"  That,  in  truth,  was  the  beginning  of  a  prayer  to  the 
Lord,  which  never  could  cease  again  until  it  had  been  fully 
answered.  The  other  remark  of  Baumgarten  is  both  obvious 
and  true  :  "  Tliis  was  of  course  not  the  first  time  that  Saul  had 
prayed ;  as  an  irreproachable  Pharisee  he  had  never  neglected 
the  hom's  of  devotion ;  but  all  his  previous  praying  did  not 
deserve  the  name."  Ah,  how  often  is  it  that,  after  much  fruit- 
ful "  prayer"  which  the  Lord  has  not  regarded.  He  Himself  at 
length  bears  His  testimony — Behold,  he  prayetli  now ! 

"  We  cannot  describe  the  whole  way  of  conversion  more 
concisely,  and  at  the  same  time  more  comprehensively,  than  by 
these  words — 'Behold,  he  prayeth.'  For  it  brings  the* two 
things  together:  that  conversion  is  God's  work;  but  that  it 
must  have  oiu'  co-operation.  In  prayer  we  lay  hold  on  God's 
good  will,  which  had  before  laid  hold  upon  us ;  and  yield  our- 
selves up  to  His  mighty  drawings"  (Rieger).  Saul,  so  mightily 
apprehended  of  Christ  Jesus,  had  already  a  secret  sense  or  hope 
of  forgiveness ;  nevertheless,  the  appropriation  of  this  pardon  in 
faith  required  of  him,  now  that  calm  reflection  followed  the 
great  manifestation,  the  most  vehement  -wTestling — the  utmost 
labom'  of  prayer,  that  in  repentance  he  might  surely  taste  the 
full  knowledge  of  his  sin.  For,  notwithstanding  all  that  was 
sudden  and  extraordinary  in  his  case,  there  was  no  remission  or 
relaxation  to  him  of  the  universal  method  of  grace : — and  this  is 
emphatically  stated  in  the  mention  of  his  prayer.     The  means 


32  ana:n:ias  commission. 

of  grace  for  liiin,  as  for  all  others,  are  the  loord  and  sacrament — 
but  dermng  then*  energy  and  effect  from  praying  faith,  which 
receives  in  order  to  further  seeking  and  finding. 

"  Behold,  he  prayeth" — that  is  the  first  and  main  point,  as 
the  verse  divides  itself ;  then  follows,  "  And  hath  seen  in  a 

VISION  A  MAN  NAMED  AnANIAS,  COMING  IN,  AND  PUTTING  HIS 
HAND  UPON  HIM,  THAT  HE  MIGHT  RECEIVE  HIS  SIGHT."      This 

corresponsive  "  vision"  of  a  different  order,  similar  to  that  of  the 
man  of  Macedonia  in  Troas  (ch.  xvi.  9),  the  personification  of 
the  people  crying  for  their  only  help,  is,  strictly  speaking,  no 
more  in  itself  than  that  seeing  from  afar,  or  anticipatory  seeing, 
what  will  afterwards  take  place,  of  which  there  are  plentiful 
examples  in  all  times.  Only  that  the  mention  of  the  name 
(doubtless  by  a  voice)  is  an  unusual  addition,  for  the  pm'pose  of 
directing  both  men  certainly  to  each  other,  as  in  the  case  of  Peter 
and  Cornelius.  One  might  say  that  the  name  would  bear  with 
it  a  consoling  significance  : — Ananias  (like  Hananiah,  Johanan, 
Johannes)  that  is,  "The  Lord  is  gracious."^  Yet,  in  any  case, 
the  vision  of  itself  was  without  any  concomitant  omen,  a  com- 
forting and  gracious  preparation  of  Saul  for  the  peaceful  con- 
sciousness of  received  gi'ace  ;  it  promised  him  very  much,  as 
being  a  continuation  of  the  Lord's  intercom'se  with  him — for 
only  from  Him  could  such  revelation  come ;  it  was  to  him  the 
beginning  of  the  answer  of  his  prayer,  pointing  him  to  the  future 
appointed  for  him.  For,  if  he  should  see  again,  it  could  be  only 
that  he  might  be  restored  to  a  new  life  and  a  new  activity  ;  that 
the  same  man  Ananias  would  furthermore  tell  him  what  he 
should  do,  was  taken  for  granted,  and  indeed  symbolically  de- 
clared in  the  opening  of  his  eyes.^  It  is  the  manner  of  a  vision 
to  exhibit  the  external,  from  which  the  rest  then  follows  ;  as  we 
find  also  that  the  Lord  only  hints  to  Atianias  his  specific  com- 
mission for  Saul — at  first  merely  by  this  laying  on  of  hands,  in 
order  to  his  recovering  sight.  That  which  follows  in  ver.  15, 16, 
as  answer  to  his  objection,  was  not  spoken  to  be  du-ectly  com- 

^  On  the  other  hand,  Job  v.  19,  is  to  be  interpreted  otherwise — "  Cloud 
of  God,"  as  Azarias — Helj)  of  God. 

2  "  We  may  well  suppose  that,  before  he  started  for  Damascus,  Saul  had 
informed  himself  of  the  feelings  of  the  Jews  in  that  city  towards  the 
Christians,  and  had  already  heard  of  this  well-known  and  universally  re- 
spected person."  So  Baumgarten  ;  but  v.-e  caunofc  agree  with  him  in  this ; 
it  is  almost  contradicted  by  ver.  2. 


ACTS  IX.  10-16.  33 

municated  to  Saul.  A^Tiat  Ananias  understood  of  his  commis- 
sion, and  afterwards  accomplished,  was,  as  far  as  it  was  con- 
tained in  the  first  connnunication  of  the  Lord,  simply  this ; 
"  Raise  him  out  of  the  deep  depression  of  his  penitence,  give 
him  gi-acious  and  new  light  concerning  his  election,  take  him  as 
a  believer  into  the  fellowship  of  those  who  belong  to  Me."  Up 
to  this  time  the  Lord  had  said  nothing  to  Ananias  about  the 
first  great  event — "  He  beheld  Me  in  the  way  to  Damascus, 
w^here  I  appeared  tec  him  !  That  was  the  cause  of  his  hlindnessV 
We  shall  see  how  Ananias  came  to  know  that  fact;  at  pre- 
sent we  observe  only  this  :  Dazzled  and  blinded  by  the  Divine 
glory,  he  must  by  hiunan  hands,  and  human  words,  be  restored 
to  sight,  which  is  itself  symbolical  of  the  ordei^  of  grace,  as  it 
proceeds  in  every  such  case,  and  to  which  everything  in  the 
history  now  leads. 

But  Ananias,  with  increasing  confidence,  the  secret  of  which 
we  have  ah'eady  pointed  out,  makes,  in  ver.  13,  14,  a  long  ob- 
jection, as  if  the  Lord  who  speaks  to  him,  and  whom  he  once 
again  replies  to,  did  not  know  and  had  not  heard  what  he  knew 
concerning  this  evil  and  dangerous  man !  The  Lord  said — 
"Behold  he  prayeth!"  but  this  appears  to  Ananias  incredible  ; 
and,  instead  of  himself  hearing,  he  adduces  what  he  had  heard 
of  many  touching  this  man  to  whom  he  was  to  go.  Past  all 
invention  true,  to  every  right  feeling,  is  this  whole  account, 
however  strange  it  may  appear ;  it  is  the  genuine  and  sincere 
conversation  of  a  disciple  with  his  Lord.  Ananias  uses  two 
peculiar  designations  of  the  Christians  :  not  "  disciples,"  nor 
"  brethren,"  neither  of  which  would  have  been  in  place  here ; 
but — Thy  saints  (comp.  ver.  32-41) ;  and  Who  call  on  Thy  name. 
The  former  is  derived  over  from  God  to  the  Lord  Jesus:  "  T/i?/," 
as  formerly  in  Scriptui'e,  "God's"  saints  (Ps.l.  5;  1  Sam.  ii.  3). 
The  latter  is  more  strictly  referred  to  Jesus  : — "Who  not  merely 
call  on  the  name  of  God,  as  the  Jews  in  hypocrisy,  and  many 
^ious  Jews  ignorantly  to  this  day,  but  call  with  a  true  faith  on 
Thy  name ;"  so,  since  Acts  i.  24,  Jesus  had  been  prayed  to,  and 
thus  the  common  designation  arose  (ver.  21;  1  Cor.  i.  2).  "And 
can  such  an  one — this  man  well  known  to  me  as  a  blasphemer 
of  Thy  name — call  now  himself  upon  Thy  name?  How  can 
that  be  possible?"  Standing  before  the  Lord  in  heaven  and 
His  supreme  power,  he  says — This  man  hath  authority !     Li  the 

C 


34  ANANIAS'  COMMISSION. 

presence  of  the  one  true  High  Priest  he  makes  mention  of  the 
high  priests  in  Jerusalem !  The  attendants  had  hardly  men- 
tioned the  letters  of  authority  dui'ing  the  three  days  ;  rather,  we 
may  suppose  that  warning  had  come  from  distant  bretln'en.  In 
any  case  Ananias  received  this  evil  report  from  many,  as  generally 
known.  But  surely  he  was  ashamed  of  his  open  and  incon- 
siderate counter-plea,  as  soon  as  he  had  finished  it ;  and  said  to 
himself,  what  therefore  the  Lord  did  not  need  to  say — "  But  the 
authority  of  Jesus  has  struck  down  this  fierce  enemy,  and  made 
him  blind  and  prayerful." 

Instead  of  any  reproof ,  Dost  thou  know  better  than  I? — for, 
the  sincere  appeals  of  His  people  to  Him,  however  weak,  incon- 
siderate, or  perverted  they  may  be,  the  Lord  never  condemns  ; 
but  rather  takes  pleasm*e  in  them,  if  they  only  come  from  pure 
hearts — instead  of  any  rebuking  word,  which  would  have  been 
out  of  harmony  with  the  revelation  of  superabounding  grace,  the 
Lord  said,  "  Go!  let  it  be  as  I  have  told  thee  before" — in  this 
one  word  expressing  no  more  than  a  gentle  reproving  reference 
back  to  His  oum  first  word,  which  ought  to  have  had  more 
weio-ht  than  all  that  Ananias  miolit  have  heard  from  others. 
And  then  follows  a  second  for,  opening  out  His  own  secret  pur- 
pose concerning  this  man,  this  Saul  of  Tarsus.     "  For  he  is  a 

CHOSEN  INSTRUMENT  (or  Vessel)    TO  Me,  TO    CARRY  My  NAME 

TO  THE  Gentiles,  and  before  kings,  and  the  children  of 
Israel."  How  does  Ananias  hearken  noic  to  the  lofty  words, 
which  have  taken  so  different  a  turn,  no  longer  speaking  of  a 
man  seeking  grace  who  simply  needed  to  be  comforted  and 
healed !  How  does  he  take  shame  to  himself,  and  think — Thou, 
Lord,  in  very  deed  knowest  best ;  and  canst  choose  and  prepare 
for  Thyself  Thine  instruments  ?  But  the  Lord  does  not  add — 
Tell  Jdm  this !  The  Spirit  afterwards  taught  Ananias  how  much 
of  this  preparatorily  to  announce  to  the  elect  Apostle,  and  how 
much  it  was  necessary  as  yet  to  conceal.  The  Lord  Himself,  in 
a  subsequent  appearance  (ch.  xxvi.  16-18)  first  declared  tlie  ap-i, 
jiointment  of  the  Apostle  of  tlic  Gentiles,  and  gave  him  the  fuller 
words  of  instruction  in  his  office ;  on  the  other  hand,  Ananias, 
ch.  xxii.  5,  speaks  only  in  more  indcfijnte  expression — "a  witness 
to  all  men,"  which  might  be  undt'rstood  as  meaning,  "  with 
whom  thou  shall  have  to  do,  everywhere  wherever  thovi  mayest 
go."     A  chosen  instrument,  literally,  a  vessel  of  election — these 


ACTS  IX.  10-16.  35 

are  two  fundamental  words,  which  the  Apostle  learned  after- 
wards in  the  school  of  the  Spirit  to  understand  and  teach  for 
himself  and  others — almost  as  if  that  Spirit  had  literally  brought 
to  his  mind  this  word  of  Jesus  concernino;  his  own  vocation. 
We  know  how  much  he  has  to  say  concerning  the  free  clwice  or 
election  of  God,  and  similarly  of  the  vessels  or  instruments  of 
mercy  or  of  wrath,  of  lionoiu'  or  of  dishonour.  (With  the 
same  Greek  expression,  Rom.  ix.  21-23 ;  2  Cor.  iv.  7 ;  2  Tim. 
i.  20,  21.)  Even  the  man  most  richly  endowed  can  receive  in 
himself  the  power  of  Divine  grace  only  as  a  vessel ;  and  only  as 
an  instrument  serve  Him  who  here  says,  in  His  royal  authority 
over  the  kingdom  and  house  of  God, — a  vessel  uiito  Me  !  My 
name — that  is  the  great  matter ;  in  that  all  is  comprehended, 
as  in  ch.  xxvi.  18,  everything  has  its  similar  sublime  close — • 
Through  the  faith  that  is  in  Me !  This  man  shall  not  merely 
call  upon  my  Jesus-name,  as  all  My  saints  do,  and  he  himself 
also  now  ;  he  shall  hear  it,  that  is,  confess,  announce  and  diffuse 
it  far  and  wide, — whereby  the  expression  still  adheres  to  the 
figurative  "  vessel."  Truly  St  Paul  was  full  of  the  ointment 
pom'ed  forth  of  the  most  holy  name  (Cant.  i.  3) — a  good  savour 
of  Christ  wherever  he  came.  The  Gentiles  now  come  first — to 
Ananias  a  new  and  great  disclosure ! — the  kings  are  in  transition 
meant  both  of  Jews  and  Gentiles,  as  St  Paul  testified  in  Jerusa- 
lem before  the  last  Jewish  king,  and  in  Rome  before  the  Cassar ; 
—finally,  before  the  children  of  Israel  is,  notwithstanding  the 
unbelief  of  the  Jews  predicted  in  ch.  xxii.  18,  the  term  and  goal 
of  all  missions,  the  end  to  which  the  testimony  of  the  Apostle, 
continued  by  the  Spirit,  will  yet  attain  with  glorious  results. 
Compare  these  prophetic  words  of  the  Lord  from  heaven  with 
the  first  rays  of  the  prophetic  light  which  shone  around  the 
Infant  in  the  words  of  Simeon,  Luke  ii.  32. 

But  the  Lord  has  not  said  all ;  a  third  "  for"  gives  most 
conclusively  the  ground  of  the  foreannoimced  fitness  of  this 
chosen  vessel :  "  For  I  will  show  him  how  much  he  must 
SUFFER  FOR  My  na3Ie's  SAKE."  The  Berlenb.  Bible^  explains 
this  incorrectly,  losing  the  connection  of  the  "for."     After  the 

1  Against  the  unaltered  republication  of  wliich,  for  oiir  times,  I  thirty 
years  ago  protested — because  not  every  man  knows  how  to  sift  out  the  evil 
from  the  good.  It  is  now,  however,  proposed  to  give  it  to  the  public,  and  I 
warn  the  laity  against  reading  it  carelessly. 


36  ANANIAS'  CONTESSION. 

correct  tliouglit  that  even  this  last  clause  would  perfectly  take 
away  all  carnal  boastmg,  it  goes  on  to  explain  :  "  Ask  not — 
shall  this  be  to  him  ?  (for  this  struck  Ananias  to  the  heart).  God 
forgives  the  sin,  but  punishes  it  even  in  His  elect.  It  shall  not 
be  forgotten  that  he  hath  injured  ^My  Church.  He  shall  have 
something  to  endm-e  for  it.  As  he  hath  injui'ed  ]\iy  saints,  he 
shall  himself  be  persecuted!"  Truly,  Ps.  xcix.  8  is  not  thus  to 
be  interpreted.  Such  vindictive  thoughts  were  certainly  not  in 
the  mind  of  Ananias ;  much  less  did  the  Lord  confirm  them. 
The  futm'e  Paul,  when  he  is  not  ashamed  of  his  tribulations, 
but  glories  in  them  (2  Cor.  i.  3-6  ;  2  Tim.  i.  11,  12 ;  2  Cor.  xi. 
23,  xii.  10),  never  brings  them  into  any  such  connection  Avith 
his  former  guilt ;  he  has  a  very  different  meaning  in  his  deep 
word — "  I  fill  up  that  which  is  behind  of  the  afflictions  of  Christ 
in  my  flesh,  for  His  body's  sake,  which  is  the  Chm^ch"  (Col. 
i.  24).  The  prophecy  which  goes  before  from  the  Lord's  own 
mouth  on  him,  at  his  ordination,  means  rather  the  good  warfare 
wliich  he  would  thenceforth  war,  in  faith  and  a  good  con- 
science (1  Tim.  i.  18,  19).  Thus  it  is  not — "  I  will  bear  in 
mind,  although  he  is  forgiven,  that  he  has  been  a  persecutor!" 
but — "My  grace  will  so  convert  and  change  him  into  an  elect 
bearer  of  My  name,  tliat  he  shall  be  himself  stedfastly  and 
zealously  faithful  as  a  persecuted  sufferer  for  ]\Iy  name's  sake !" 
The  apparent  threatening  is  itself  the  highest  promise  of  grace  : 
*'  he  shall,  as  an  elect  instrument,  be  counted  worthy  of  endur- 
ing great  shame  for  My  sake"  (INlatt.  v.  10-12,  xx.  22  ;  Acts 
V.  41 ;  1  Pet.  iv.  13).  And  in  this  is  included — indeed  the 
"  for"  gives  it  prominence — the  deep  principle,  applicable  not 
to  St  Paul  alone,  but  to  all,  that  to  every  vessel  of  grace,  and 
especially  every  witness  of  the  Gospel,  suffering  is  inevitable,  and 
that  the  measure  of  affliction  is  in  proportion  to  the  height  and 
dignity  of  the  vocation.  That  which  was  said  in  the  Old  Tes- 
tament, as  the  germ  so  to  speak  of  the  rule  for  all  God's  ways 
with  the  children  of  men,  "  He  who  will  leam^  much  must  suffer 
much"  (Eccles.  i.  18  ;  comp.  Prov.  xv.  33), — attains,  now  that 
the  great  Forerunner  hath  entered  through  sufferings  into  His 
glory,  its  highest  confirmation  for  all  who  enter  into  the  kingdom 
of  God,  Acts  xiv.  22.  Thus,  the  great  Forerunner  speaks  here 
of  this,  of  the  grace  of  sanctifying,  confirming,  and  preserving 
^  Not  teach,  as  \ve  find  in  Luther,  lehren. 


ACTS  IX.  10-16.  37 

affliction  for  His  saints ;  and  applies  a  general  truth  especially 
to  this  specially  elect  servant.  "/  will  show  him,  that  is,  give  him 
to  experience" — so  speaks  He  who  has  not  only  suffered  Himself, 
but  is  ever  suffering  in  His  members.  The  first  experience  of 
its  truth  Saul  had,  according  to  ver.  23-25,  in  Damascus ;  hence 
in  2  Cor.  xi.  he  mentions  this  first  suffering  for  the  sake  of 
Clmst. 

But  the  Lord's  last  word  had  to  Ananias  a  tone  of  dis- 
missal— "  Do  thou  thy  part,  execute  thy  commission ;  /  will 
provide  for  all  the  rest  of  his  career ! "  and  Ananias  went  his 
way — so  we  read  in  ch.  ix. ;  in  ch.  xxii.  more  is  added  which 
was  said  to  him.  He  not  only  laid  his  hands  upon  "  brother 
Saul,"  that  he  might  see  again ;  but,  that  he  might  be  filled 
with  the  Holy  Spuit,  exliorted  him  to  be  baptized,  and  baptized 
him.  Concerning  sufferings  appointed  to  him  he  says  nothing ; 
concerning  his  call  to  be  a  witness  of  the  Lord  he  utters  a  very 
general  expression ;  but  nothing  concerning  his  pre-eminent 
dignity  and  honour  as  an  elect  vessel.  But  when  he  goes  on — 
Jesus,  who  appeared  to  thee  in  the  way,  hath  sent  me — and 
speaks  of  the  ordained  seeing  of  the  Just  One,  and  hearing  the 
words  of  His  mouth — we  ask  whence  he  came  to  know  this. 
The  Lord  had  not,  according  to  St  Luke's  detailed  accomit, 
declared  it  to  him ;  or,  did  the  Lord  actually  say  more  than  we 
have  in  that  narrative  ?  In  such  matters  every  man  is  free  to 
hold  his  own  opinion.  For  our  own  part,  we  cannot  consent  to 
add  anything  unwritten  to  the  measured  and  rounded  words  of 
our  Lord  from  heaven,  as  w^e  find  them  here  recorded;  cer- 
tainly not,  which  would  be  most  strange,  that  Jesus  Himself 
spoke  at  length  concerning  His  appearance  to  Saul.  Thus,  if 
St  Luke  records  nothing  of  the  kind,  and  yet  relates  what  we 
f m'ther  read  concerning  Ananias,  the  thoughtful  reader  must 
find  another  answer  to  the  question,  which  is  not  a  vain  and 
over-curious  one.  Whence  did  Ananias  know  of  the  Lord's 
appearance  to  Saul  in  the  way?  The  attendants,  certainly, 
could  only  give  their  indefinite  impression  of  the  whole  event, 
and  Saul  had  not,  dm-ing  the  tlu'ee  days  given  them  any  further 
information ;  moreover,  Ananias,  who  straightway  obeyed,  and 
went  to  the  house  of  Saul,  previously  unknown  to  liim,  had 
nothing  to  do  with  them.  We  simply  explain  the  matter  thus. 
After  the  words  of  the  Lord,  Ananias  knew  sufficiently  well 


38  AXANIAS'  COMMISSION. 

this,  that  he  should  go  to  Saul,  whom  the  Lord  had  in  some 
wonderful  way  humbled  and  changed,  that  he  should  heal  him 
and  establish  him.  "VYliat  he  should  say  in  connection  with  the 
imposition  of  hands,  wliich  could  not  be  meant  as  a  mere  cere- 
monial gesture,  is  left  to  himself,  that  he  may  with  wisdom 
gather  it  from  what  was  disclosed  to  him — as  he  accordingly  did. 
But  not  only  so ;  when  the  Holy  Ghost  taught  him  to  under- 
stand and  to  say  that  Saul,  restored  to  sight,  should  be  filled 
with  the  Holy  Ghost,  he  himself,  whose  hand  and  word  and 
baptism  imparted  that  great  gift,  was  at  the  same  time  Jilled 
with  the  Holy  Ghost,  as  St  Luke  often  records  of  the  Apostles 
and  all  believers.  (Acts  iv.  8  31,  vi.  3  5,  vii.  55,  xi.  24, 
xiii.  9,  52.)  Thus,  the  solution  of  the  difficulty  is  this,  that  to 
Ananias — possibly  on  the  way  to  Saul,  more  probably  at  the 
moment  when  he  begins  to  speak — the  Spirit  imparts  all  that 
he  now  proceeds  to  say.  (Just  as  Elizabeth  greeted  the  mother 
of  our  Lord  mtli  a  sudden  revelation — only  that  Ananias  was 
more  fully  prepared.)  And  here  we  have  at  the  same  time, 
in  the  complement  of  the  Lord's  first  words  from  heaven,  the 
significant  and  instructive  lesson — that  it  is  His  will  to  leave 
to  the  Holy  Spirit  in  His  disciples  the  completing  of  His 
immediate  word :  both  go  together  in  harmony  from  the  very 
beginning. 

In  conclusion,  it  is  to  be  observed  that  Ananias  gave  Saul 
no  further  instruction,  or  (as  Olshausen  expressed  himself) 
"  teaching  as  to  the  way  of  eternal  life."  Of  this  we  read 
nothing  in  these  two  chapters ;  on  the  contraiy,  we  are  more 
than  once  given  to  understand  that  St  Paul,  as  he  was  not 
called  of  men,  so  also  was  not  instructed  of  men,  but  through 
the  revelation  of  Jesus  Christ,  who  reserved  for  His  own  teach- 
ing more  than  the  mere  shewing  of  His  sufferings,  \^^licll 
carries  us  on  to  those  fm-ther  manifestations  and  directions 
which  are  recorded  subsequently  in  this  book. 


ACTS  XXII.  17-21.  39 


m. 


TO  SAUL  IN  THE  TEMPLE  :    THE  MISSION  TO  THE  GENTILES 
ANNOUNCED. 

(Acts  xxii.  17-21.) 

To  avoid  prolixity  we  shall  refrain  from  any  introductory  dis- 
cussion of  the  scene  and  the  hearers  of  this  speech  of  St  Paul ; 
but  we  entreat  our  readers  to  strive  to  reproduce  the  whole 
\dvidly  in  their  imagination.  He  stands  upon  the  steps  of  the 
Castle  Antonia,  in  the  presence  of  the  Jewish  people,  inflamed 
against  him,  on  accoimt  of  his  supposed  desecration  of  the 
temple ;  and  testifies  now,  for  the  first  time,  in  great  publicity, 
and  at  Jerusalem,  concerning  Christ.  They  were  reduced  to 
silence  hj  a  movement  of  his  hand.  From  ver.  1  to  16  he  has 
nan-ated  the  manifestation  at  Damascus,  and  Ananias'  declara- 
tion at  his  baptism  ;  he  now  goes  on  to  give,  in  all  simplicity,  as 
it  occurred,  the  narrative  of  afmlher  appearance  of  the  Lord, 
which  belongs  properly  to  this  place. 

And  it  came  to  pass,  that,  as  I  made  my  persecuting  jomiiey 
to  Damascus — that  was  his  sublime  and  simple  word  in  ver.  6. 
With  the  same  word  he  here  makes  a  new  beginnino;,  havino- 
something  most  important  to  announce :  Atid  it  came  to  pass, 
that,  when  I  came  again  to  Jerusalem.  Consequently,  this  was 
the  first  return  after  his  conversion,  as  it  is  recorded  in  ch.  ix. 
26-30.  Further,  this  return  took  place,  as  we  find  in  Gal.  i. 
17,  18,  not  till  after  a  three  years'  abode  in  Arabia,  the  solitude 
of  which,  probably  having  for  its  object  the  calm  preparation 
of  the  Apostle  for  his  work,  is  concealed  as  a  mystery.^  Thus 
much  is  certain  from  Scriptm'e ;  St  Luke,  ch.  ix.,  passes  over 
these  three  years,  as  he  often  passes  over  long  intervals,  without 
a  word.  ^\niether  this  is  to  be  interpolated  after  ver.  25  in  his 
history,  or  before  that,  between  ver.  22  and  23,  as  we  think,^  is  of 

^  "We  cannot  (with  Wieseler)  consent  to  say,  -witlaout  qualification — "  He 
preached  three  years  in  Arabia  ! " 

2  For  this  may  the  iifiipoit  Ikui/ui  be  understood :  the  complete  time  (that 
is,  a  considerable  period  past).     The  narrative  is  thus  distributed,  from  ver. 


40  TO  SAUL  IN  THE  TEMPLE. 

comparatively  little  moment.  Wieseler  declares  it  to  be  indu- 
bitable that  the  "  trance "  mentioned  by  St  Paul,  2  Cor.  xii. 
2-4,  is  the  same  which  is  recorded  in  Acts  xxii.  17  ;  but  this 
we  cannot  by  any  means  allow.  The  chronological  reckonmg 
is  not  decisive  in  his  favour ;  for  the  vision  and  revelation  of 
the  Lord,  2  Cor.  xii.  1,  were  certainly  not  so  unfrcquent  as  to 
oblige  us  to  investigate  the  time  of  each.  If  the  Apostle  here 
singles  out  one  of  them  only,  which  occui'red  to  him  fourteen 
years  before,  the  reason  lay  in  the  high  and  heavenly  matter  of 
that  revelation,  as  in  ver.  7  he  speaks  of  its  abundance,  its  super- 
abundance. The  unspeakable  words  heard  in  the  third  heaven 
and  paradise  scarcely  harmonize  with  the  simple  matter  and  calm 
procedure  of  the  conversation  with  the  Lord  in  the  temple,  which 
he  relates  to  the  Jews.  We  cannot  understand  how  both  could 
have  concurred  in  one  revelation ;  and  should  regard  the  trance 
of  the  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians  as  rather  suitable  to  the  sojourn 
in  Arabia  (with  which  the  chronology  may  be  easily  conformed). 
Nor,  after  all,  should  we  assume  that  the  manifestation  recorded 
in  Acts  xxii.  was  actually  the  second  communication  of  the  Lord 
to  the  Apostle  after  His  appearance  at  Damascus  :  the  contrary 
is  far  more  probable.  Suffice,  that  to  know  the  time  and  order 
is  no  more  necessaiy  here  than  it  is  in  relation  to  the  Lord's 
words  generally,  and  to  the  appearances  of  the  risen  Lord  in 
particular. 

Trance  is  certainly  more  indirect  than  bodily  appearance. 
Near  Damascus  Saul  was  not  entranced;  although  for  such 
seeing  and  hearing  as  that,  it  was  necessaiy  that  a  susceptibility 
of  hearing  and  seeing,  different  from  his  ordinary  condition, 
should  be  excited.  The  stages  and  distinctions,  however  real 
they  may  be,  nevertheless'  shade  off  into  each  other.  Thus,  the 
trance  may,  under  some  circumstances,  as  we  have  just  seen  in 
the  Corinthians,  go  far  beyond  other  visions ;  while,  on  the 
other  hand,  it  may  be  only  the  medium  (as  with  St  Peter,  Acts 
xi.  5)  for  the  witnessing  of  a  vision.  So  was  it  with  St  Paul, 
who  while  praying  was  entranced,  literally,  fell  into  a  trance ; 
comp.  Acts  X.  9,  the  praying  of  St  Peter.  But  that  he  was  in 
the  body,  and  not  out  of  the  body,  he  here  knows  full  well ;  for 

23:  at  the  beginning  the  Jews  Avonld  kill  him  in  Damascus;  at  the  end, 
even  the  Greeks  (Hellenists),  in  Jerusalem  ;  in  the  interim,  ver.  26,  the 
disciples  would  not  acknowledge  him. 


ACTS  XXII.  17-21.  41 

he  was  bodily  present  in  the  temple  : — probably  at  the  customary 
hour  of  prayer,  like  Peter  and  John,  eh.  iii.  1.  For,  as  long  as 
the  desolate  temple,  left  over  to  destruction,  stood  yet  under  the. 
patience  of  the  Lord,  so  long  was  it  honoured  even  by  the 
Jewish  Christians.  St  Paul  prays  in  the  temple,  not  indeed 
■with  the  prejudiced  mind  of  those  thousands  of  believers  spoken 
of  in  ch.  xxi.  20  as  so  zealous  for  the  law,  but  yet  with  the  true 
love  of  devotion  to  his  people  and  their  sanctuary:  he  prays, 
who  had  only  in  Damascus  learned  to  pray  aright !  He  had 
certainly  long  ago  come  to  understand  St  Stephen's  doctrine, 
how  much  or  how  little  the  holy  place  was  to  be  regarded — yet 
he  can  here,  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  people,  relate  with  sin- 
cerity that  he  had  prayed  in  the  temple. 

"That  1  was  in  a  trance,  and  saio  Him!  "  Thus,  still  more, 
the  Lord  Himself  counts  the  temple  worthy  to  be  the  scene  of  a 
revelation  to  tlis  servant — though,  indeed,  oaily  to  command  hun, 
Get  thee  out !  "  I  saw  Him " — thus  does  the  Apostle  express 
himself,  only  in  ver.  8  throughout  the  narrative  mentioning 
"  Jesus  of  Nazareth  "  as  the  name  spoken  by  the  Lord  Himself : 
in  all  the  rest  it  is  the  Lord,  the  Just  One,  the  gi'eat  Pie,  whose 
unacknowledged  dignity  and  unrendered  honour  are  here  con- 
cerned. "  And  saw  Him  saying  unto  me  " — in  which  aiTange- 
ment  of  the  words  is  expressed  the  near  and  continuous  seeing ; 
not  as  at  Damascus,  where  there  was  a  sudden  momentary  be- 
holding, before  the  hearing  of  the  voice. 

Make  haste,  and  get  thee  quickly  out  of  Jerusalem: 
for  they  avill  not  receive  thy  testimony  concerning 
Me!  This  word,  now  reported,  would  vex  and  offend  the 
unbelieving  multitude ;  but  scarcely  less  strange,  though  for  a 
different  reason,  did  it  sound  to  the  Apostle  and  witness  him- 
self, when  he  heard  it  first.  He  had  returned  to  Jerusalem 
with  the  firm  persuasion  that  of  course  the  Jews  in  Jerusalem 
would  be  among  the  men  to  whom  he  should  be  a  witness  for 
the  Lord :  he  burns  with  desire  to  bear  his  mighty  loitncss  in 
this  place.  The  Lord  takes  it  for  granted  that  he  felt  it  to  be 
the  strong  impulse  of  his  soul — provided  there  was  no  counter- 
command — at  once  to  preach  in  Jerusalem,  as  he  had  done  in 
Damascus,  Jesus  as  the  Son  of  God;  Pie  assumes  no  other 
remaining  in  Jerusalem  than  that  which  had  a  testimony  con- 
cerning Himself  for  its  object.    Wherever  this  man  may  be,  and 


42  THE  MISSION  to  THE  GENTILES  ANNOUNCED. 

before  whomsoever  he  may  stand,  there  he  does  bear  his  Mas- 
ter's name,  as  Jesus  had  said  at  the  first.  But  He  now  utters 
a  counter-command !  He  enjoins  upon  him  to  cease,  and 
restrain  the  preaching  which  had  been  ah'eady  boldly  commenced, 
Acts  ix.  21,  27-29.  He  even  commands  him — and  most  ex- 
pressly with  twofold  injunction — to  go  quickly,  not  only  from 
the  temple,  but  from  the  city  itself!  Wherefore,  then,  so 
quickly?  Is  there  danger  in  delay?  There  was  danger,  and 
this  is  the  unexpressed  undertone  of  this  remarkable  utterance : 
the  Lord  will  save  him  from  the  people,  as  it  runs  afterwards, 
ch.  xxvi.  17.  The  foreign,  Greek-speaking  Jews,  had  already 
laid  plots  for  the  life  of  the  bold  preacher  of  the  name  of  Jesus 
(ch.  ix.  29) — what,  then,  might  be  expected  from  the  rigor- 
ously orthodox,  fanatical  Hebrews?  The  open  insurrection 
which  had  been  excited  (now  as  afterwards  in  the  council,  ch. 
xxiii.  10)  had,  on  this  his  almost  disobedient  return,  showed  that. 
But  all  this  the  Lord  does  not  say  to  St  Paul ;  because  he  held 
not  his  life  dear  if  he  could  only  finish  his  course  with  joy,  and 
testify  the  Gospel  of  the  grace  of  God  (ch.  xx.  24).  The 
reason  of  this  interdict  upon  his  earnest  zeal,  which  the  Lord's 
majesty  condescends  to  assign,  is  most  decidedly  this  only :  be- 
cause they  would  not  receive  the  testimony,  that  is,  would  not 
believe  it,  therefore  the  life  of  His  valued  servant,  destined  to 
the  benefit  of  many,  should  not  be  uselessly  sacrificed.  Thus 
the  Lord  speaks,  who  knows  all  things  beforehand,  the  faith  or 
the  unbelief  of  all  men ;  by  this  He  f  m'ther  assui*es  us  that  He 
reserves  or  takes  away  the  testimony  from  no  man  who  will  yet 
receive  it,  but  rather  sends  back  again  for  their  conviction,  if  it 
may  be,  the  testimony  to  those  who  have  not  believed  it — as 
now  by  Paul  coming  once  more  to  Jerusalem.  "  Not  receive  " 
— spoken  gently  and  mildly,  instead  of  "cast  it  from  them  and 
blaspheme"  (ch.  xiii.  45,  4G).  For,  if  it  may  be  permitted  thus 
to  speak  of  Him  who  sitteth  at  the  right  hand  of  God,  He  here 
utters  with  sorrowful  tenderness,  and  not  in  threatening  wrath, 
the  sad  confirmation  of  what  He  had  prophesied  upon  earth  in 
the  anger  of  His  love,  Matt,  xxiii.  32,  etc.,  concerning  the  un- 
belief of  this  people  and  generation.  He  anticipates  the  fore- 
seen objection  in  the  heart  of  Paul :  Even  thy  testimony  (em- 
phatically first  in  the  original)  will  not  suffice,  though  it  be 
irresistible  for  conviction ;  because  that  testimony  is  concerning 


ACTS  XXII.  17-21.  43 


Me — yea,  concerning  Me,  upon  whom  the  decree  once  was, 
Away  with  Him !  We  will  not  have  this  man  to  rule  over  us  I 
In  spite  of  this  plain  and  express  word,  the  Apostle  cannot 
refrain  from  uttering  his  objection — "But  my  testimony,  O 
Lord,  will  not  that  be  received  by  them  ?  "  He  speaks  confi- 
dently, like  Ananias,  with  his  Master;  and  indeed  with  still 
more  confidence  than  Ananias,  in  harmony  with  the  position 
which  he  had  now  by  gTace  assumed.  He  has  also,  in  a  certain 
sense,  more  reason  and  propriety  in  his  counter-appeal;  for 
certainly  he  might  think  and  hope  that,  humanly  speaking, 
his  most  strong  and  self-evidencing  testimony — less  in  per- 
suasive words,  than  in  the  express  fact  of  his  so  wonderfully 
changed  personal  character — must  exert  some  influence,  and 
win  some  good  results.  And  this  is  reinforced  by  the  impulse 
of  his  bm'ning  love  to  blinded  Israel,  his  brethren  according  to 
the  flesh  who  were  ruslimg  to  destruction,  the  people  of  God's 
election  : — this  is  most  affectingly  attested  by  the  narrative 
throughout,  which  seems  to  avow,  against  all  accusation — "Not 
through  enmity  against  my  people,  or  apostasy  from  them,  have 
I  become  what  I  now  am  in  opposition  to  my  former  self ! " 
St  Paul  would  have  desu'ed  nothing  better  than  to  remain,  or 
to  become,  a  missionary  to  the  Jews.  He  cannot  altogether 
reconcile  himself  to  the  Lord's  word — Get  thee  out !  As  many 
new  converts  who  have  been  quickly  and  mai'vellously  brought 
in — however  otherwise  not  to  be  compared  with  Paul — think 
they  will  carry  on  a  more  vigorous  and  successful  war  upon  the 
world  than  others,  so  Paul,  whose  soul  might  w^ell  be  filled  with 
the  conviction — "If  I  go  forth  preaching  Jesus,  it  will  be  with 
more  demonstrative  power  than  all  the  words  and  acts  of  Peter 
or  John,  and  all  the  other  Apostles !  All  know  what  I  loas, 
what  I  did — should  they  not  beheve  when  I,  the  same  man, 
preach  concerning  Thee,'  and  declare  Thy  power  in  my  conver- 
sion?" He  refers  to  his  o^^^l  approbation  when  the  blood  of 
Stephen  was  shed,  and  even  to  his  actual  participation  in  that 
act,^  in  order  to  declare  that  he  w^as  ready  for  the  same  destiny 
— even  as  in  the  second  joui'ney,  the  present  one,  he  had  re- 
mained firm,  notwithstanding  all  prophecy  of  bonds  and  im- 

^  The  keeping  of  the  garments — not  to  preserve  them  from  theft ! — was 
something  official  on  the  part  of  the  young  man ;  who,  however,  according 
to  ch.  xxvi.  10,  had  given  his  voice  against  Stephen  in  the  council. 


44  THE  AMISSION  TO  THE  GENTILES  ANNOUNCED. 

prisonment.  (Ch.  xix.  21 ;  xx.  23,  24;  xxi.  4,  11-13.)  Thy 
ivitness — as  if  to  say,  "May  I  not  then  also  lay  down  my  testi- 
mony, even  though  it  were  in  death  ;  may  I  not  also  be  counted 
worthy  of  the  martyr's  crown  ?  ^  Would  not  my  blood  similarly, 
and  still  more,  be  followed  by  a  new  blessing  and  increase  of 
faith  in  the  word  of  Thy  testimony?" — All  this  was  good  and 
pleasing  to  the  Lord,  who  therefore  let  His  servant  give  vent  to 
his  feeling ;  but  it  showed  that  St  Paul  did  not  know,  as  his 
Master  did,  the  depth  of  the  apostasy  of  the  world,  the  utter 
blindness  of  unbelieving  Israel.  And  it  is,  further,  proof  of  the 
lesser  guilt  of  his  OAvn  earlier  unbelief,  since  he  has  no  experi- 
ence of  the  hardened  perverseness  of  the  rebellious  will ;  but, 
on  the  other  hand,  as  was  said  before,  there  is  something  of  evil 
self  which  opposes  the  Lord  in  these  words.  For,  he  has  in 
some  degree  departed  from  that  first  question  of  unconditional 
obedience — '"Lord,  what  wilt  Thou  have  me  to  do?"  and  seems 
to  question  his  Lord  touching  his  appointments ;  he  has  his  own 
thoughts  as  to  the  special  importance  of  his  own  converted 
person  in  the  kingdom  of  God. 

In  this,  again,  he  is  right,  only  not  as  he  thinks  with  re- 
spect to  Israel, — the  kingdom  of  God  is  greater,  and  shall 
extend  much  wider  and  farther.  Depart  :  for  I  will  send 
THEE  FAR  HENCE  UNTO  THE  Gentiles  !  As  in  the  case  of 
Ananias,  the  Lord  refers  him,  too,  back  to  His  first  command- 
ment, Depart!  and,  as  then,  gives  another  FOR,  with  a  new 
reason  and  more  conclusive  explanation  of  what  He  does.  Not 
merely.  The  Jews  will  not  believe  !  but,  as  it  is  hinted.  Others 
will  believe,  and  thou  art  reserved  and  appointed  to  testify  to 
them.  The  Lord's  /  answers  the  (similarly  prominent  in  the 
original)  /which  His  servant  had  laid  stress  upon.  "Wliither 
the  Lord  would  send  (literally  more  strong — would  send  out, 
send  away),  thither  must  His  servant  go,  without  demur ;  and 
though  it  be  far  hence,  to  those  among  the  Gentiles,  who  with 
their  whole  heart  hung  upon  Israel.  This  is  probably  the  first 
plain  annomicemcnt,  though  preliminary  and  pointing  to  the 
future,  of  his  vocation  as  the  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles  :  "I  Avill 
to,  or  will,  send  thee."  In  this  calm  manifestation  Paul  was 
already,  before  he  was  separated  by  the  prophets  in  Antioch, 

'^  Toti  f*.xpriip6s  aov — the  expression  begins  already  to  pass  over  ioto  the 
later  meaning  of  martyr,  witness  unto  blood,  as  in  Rev.  ii.  13. 


ACTS  XXII.  17-21.  45 

called  to  liis  labours  among  the  Gentiles :  hence  the  Holy 
Ghost  said,  ch.  xiii.  2, — "  To  which  I  have  already  called  them  " 
(Barnabas  also).  Yet  not  before  St  Peter  had  preached  to 
Cornelius  (of  which  more  afterwards) — so  that  the  transition  of 
the  Gospel  to  the  Gentiles  was  not  here  indicated  to  St  Paul  as 
something  in  itself  new  and  strange ;  only  his  own  specific 
vocation.  The  more  full  call  by  the  appearing  Lord,  which  is 
related  in  ch.  xxW.  16,  has  no  special  note  of  time  connected 
with  it ;  but  we  place  it,  on  account  of  the  connection,  without 
determining  the  order  of  time,  after  the  present  announcement. 
The  Lord  may  indeed  have  spoken  more  than  this ;  for  at 
the  word  concerning  the  Gentiles,  St  Paul  was  interrupted. 
But  it  does  not  to  us  seem  probable  that  the  Lord's  words  com- 
municated in  ch.  xxvi.  followed  here  immediately :  there  are 
reasons  against  it  which  ■\^^ll  be  considered  in  the  proper  place. 
Thus  we  may  suppose  that  He  by  degrees  prepared  Paul  for 
the  full  annomicement  of  his  vocation.  Rightly  understood, 
we  adopt  v.  Gerlach's  note,  that  this  was  "  his  proper  vocation 
as  an  Apostle'^  by  the  Lord  Himself,  after  the  preliminary 
declaration  given  by  Ananias  ;  but  not  yet  his  actual  and  for- 
mal institution  to  the  apostleship  of  the  Gentiles.  St  Paul,  in 
that  first  sojourn  in  Jerusalem,  had  consorted  only  with  the 
Hellenists,  or  foreign  Jew^s  (ch.  ix.  29).  When  they  went 
about  to  slay  him,  he  obediently  declined  the  death  of  martyr- 
dom, and  (after  taiTjdng  there  fomleen  days,  Gal.  i.  18)  was 
brought  by  the  brethren  down  to  Csesarea  to  Tarsus,  his  pater- 
nal home  (as  we  read  in  ch.  ix.).  But,  after  he  had  accom- 
plished much  in  the  Gentile  mission,  he  pui'poses  in  spu'it  to  go 
once  more  up  to  Jerusalem,  from  which  indeed  the  Lord  had 
sent  him  away ;  and  it  pleased  the  Lord  to  accept  this  act  of 
seeming  disobedience  (St  Paul  does  not  forget  his  special  call ; 
he  does  not  pm*pose  to  remain  in  Jerusalem) — for  He  acknow- 
ledges in  ch.  xxiii.  11,  as  it  w^ere  with  approbation,  even  this 
testimony.  But  He  orders  the  matter  so,  that  he  Avho  stood  as 
a  witness  before  the  council,  and  before  the  king,  and  the 
governor,  should  be  carried  to  Rome  as  a  prisoner — to  proclaim, 
before  the  supreme  power  of  tliis  world,  the  kingdom  of  God 
wdiich  is  not  of  this  world. 


46  FURTHER  APPEARANCE  TO  SAUL. 

IV. 

FURTHER  APPEARANCE  TO  SAUL  :  TO  WHOM  I  NOW  SEND  THEE. 

(Acts  xxvi.  16-18.) 

"Rise  and  stand  upon  thy  feet!"  Thus,  in  these  more  em- 
phatic and  hterally  recorded  words,  did  the  Lord  speak  near 
Damascus.  But  it  is  certain  and  self-evident  that  He  could 
not  have  spoken  then  what  St  Paul  here  adds  before  Agrippa ; 
for,  that  twice-related,  definitive  mandate,  "  It  shall  be  told 
thee  in  the  city,"  does  not  harmonise  mth  so  early  an  explana- 
tion and  mission.  Consequently,  we  must  assume  that  the 
Apostle  here  sums  up  compendiously  what  was  said  at  a  later 
time ;  and  connects  it  all  very  appropriately  with  the  account  of 
his  destination — expressed  in  the  simple  Stand  upon  thy  feet ! 
— to  a  new  service  of  activity  in  the  work  of  Jesus.  Thus  it 
appears  as  if  one  word — "  For  therefore  have  I  ajDpeared  unto 
thee,  that  thou  mayest  stand  before  Me,  as  IVIy  servant  and 
witness,  through  ]\Iy  help  and  salvation"  (comp.  ver.  22).  If, 
after  three  years,  the  Lord  Himself  in  the  temple  at  Jerusalem 
announced  as  something  new — "I  will  send  thee  among  the 
Gentiles  !" — yet  that  which  we  read  here  in  ch.  xxvi.  was  not 
spoken  till  afterwards. 

Or,  was  it  not  spoken  by  the  Lord  at  all  ?  Most  expositors, 
even  among  the  orthodox,^  have  come  to  regard  it  as  quite 
probable  that  St  Paul  set  down  as  the  Lord's  word  what  had 
been  said  to  him  by  Ananias,  and  afterwards  had  been  revealed 
to  his  own  spirit.  Against  this  we  protested  in  om-  "  Dis- 
com'ses  of  the  Apostles."  Alford  replies  that  he  does  not  see 
the  necessity  of  regarding  all  these  words  as  having  been  once 
spoken  by  the  Lord  ;  but  to  us  it  is  not  merely  matter  of  see- 
ing or  insight,  but  of  still  more  decisive  feeling.  It  is  lament- 
able that  orthodox  expositors  do  not  more  correctly  feel,  in 
cases  where  the  feeling  should  decide.  We  cannot  agree  with 
Baumgarten  that,  "  on  every  view,  it  is  of  no  moment  which 
way  we  decide;"  we  think  that  it  may  here  be  decided  with 
confidence  that,  though  the  words   "  were  not  spoken  by  the 

^  Baumgarten  included,  whose  general  fidelity  to  the  miraculous  reve- 
lations scarcely  prepared  us  to  expect  this  from  him  ! 


ACTS  XXVI.  lG-i8.  47 

Lord  in  immediate  sequence,"  yet  that  they  were  not  "  com- 
municated by  Him  to  St  Paul  at  a  later  period  through  Ana- 
nias." It  is  true  that  the  weight  of  the  matter  does  not  rest 
upon  the  exact  order  of  time  or  hterality  of  the  words ;  but,  in 
the  case  of  this  narrative,  and  the  very  important  words  of  the 
Lord  to  His  servant,  the  difference  between  immediate  and 
indnect  speaking  is  of  much  moment ;  even  as  St  Paul  else- 
where, and  on  other  occasions,  makes  this  distinction  prominent. 
Would  he  forget  that  distinction  here  1  Her^e,  Avhen  the 
Apostle  makes  the  Lord  speak  of  His  having  appeared,  and 
having  appeared  again,  has  he  only  placed  the  words  in  the 
Lord's  lips'?  in  order  afterwards,  in  ver.  19,  to  include  it  in 
the  "  heavenly  vision  !"  One  appearance  converted  the  Apostle 
to  the  faith,  another  appointed  him  to  be  a  witness,  and  these 
are  embraced  in  one — such  a  combination  alone  is  permissible 
— only  one  heavenly  appearance  of  the  Li^dng  One,  to  which 
he  was  now  not  disobedient.  On  the  other  hand,  the  iVpostle 
would  never  have  permitted  himself  to  unite  together  in  one, 
as  spoken  by  the  Lord  at  His  appearance,  words  which  were 
indirectly  communicated  to  him :  he  could  not  have  done  this, 
either  in  the  first  testimony  which  he  bore  before  the  Jewish 
people,  or  here  where  he  stands  before  the  Gentiles,  and  (as 
Baumgarten  remarks)  has  "  the  exliibition  of  the  wide  signifi- 
cance of  the  Gentile  Apostolate  for  his  object." 

Let  us,  however,  come  nearer  to  the  matter  in  hand.  If 
these  words  were  not  spoken  on  His  first  appearance  by  the 
Lord,  but  at  some  later  one,  are  they  to  be  inserted  after  what 
is  related  in  ch.  xxii.  17-21,  where  the  continuation  was  inter- 
rupted ?  This,  for  evident  reasons,  cannot  be  assumed.  First, 
the  promised  sending  to  the  Gentiles  is  uttered  there  in  an 
entirely  different,  but  internally  necessary  and  significant,  con- 
nection :  there  is  no  harmony  between  "  I  Avill  send  thee"  first, 
and  then  immediately,  "  I  now  send  thee."  Then  it  was  indeed 
said,  ch.  xxii.,  to  the  Apostle — "In  Jerusalem  they  will  not 
receive  thy  testimony;"  but  it  was  only  hinted,  not  directly 
spoken,  that  that  testimony  would  be  effectual  among  .the 
Gentiles.  Here,  on  the  contraiy,  he  receives  a  great  promise 
for  the  power  of  the  word  with  which  he  is  sent  forth,  as  he  in 
ch.  XX.  32,  e.  g.,  holds  it  fast  and  repeats  it.  Consequently,  the 
distinction  is  evident  between — "I  will  to,  I  will  send  thee!" 


48  FURTHER  APrEAR^ViSXE  TO  SAUL. 

in  tlie  former  case,  and — "I  send  tliee  now  !"  in  the  latter.^  ' 
As  to  this  assertion,  that  ch.  xxvi.  records  an  appearance  sub- 
sequent to  that  of  ch.  xxii.,  we  said,  in  a  former  work,  "  Not 
much  depends  upon  it,  and  it  may  be  left  to  others  to  decide." 
But  now  we  think  differently ;  and  to  our  more  comprehensive 
view,  after  twenty-eight  years,  what  we  have  now  insisted  upon 
places  the  gradual  disclosure  of  the  Apostle's  great  calling  in 
its  clearest  and  most  impressive  hght. 

The  immediateness  of  these  words — as  spoken  by  our  Lord 
Himself — is  of  the  utmost  importance  as  it  respects  the  instruc- 
tion for  St  Paul's  office,  and  the  plan  of  salvation,  which  are 
contained  in  ver.  18.  Even  if  the  Apostle  had  learned  this 
through  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  school  of  Christ,  it  would  have 
been  still  truth  derived  from  the  Lord.  But  it  would  not  have 
been  lawful  for  him  to  say — Thus  spake  the  Lord  to  me  !  No 
Apostle  ever  permitted  himself  to  do  that;  least  of  all  the 
Apostle  who  several  times,  with  conscientious  rigom",  distin- 
guishes between  what  he  said  himself  (having  the  Spirit  of 
God),  and  what  the  Lord  had  said  to  him: — the  Apostle  who,  at 
^Miletus,  appends  to  his  own  long  discom'se,  which  had  contained 
prophecy,  the  single  saying  of  the  words  of  the  Lo7'd  Jesusy 
which  He  had  spoken  in  His  humiliation  upon  earth,  giving  it 
reverent  distinction  from  his  own  words  as  tlieir  solemn  close ! 
(Ch.  XX.  35.)  Let  it  be  as  it  may  with  respect  to  that  appear- 
ance, which  he  here  before  Agrippa  combines  with  the  first — • 
we  liave  from  the  lips  of  the  Lord  Himself,  given  from  heaven, 
one  of  the  most  fundamental,  profomid,  and  important  sum- 
maries of  instruction  for  the  Apostolate  and  ministerial  ofiice 
generally. 

For  I  HAVE  APPEARED  UNTO  THEE  FOR  THIS  PURPOSE, 
TO  MAKE  THEE  A  MINISTER  AND  A  WITNESS  BOTH  OF  THOSE 
THINGS  AVHICH  THOU  HAST  SEEN,  AND  OF  THOSE  THINGS  IN  THE 

WHICH  I  WILL  (yet)  APPEAR  UNTO  THEE.    Here  the  Lord 

Himself  combines  in  one  His  previous  and  future  manifestations; 
with  reference  to  their  sole  object,  the  appointment  and  destina- 
tion of  St  Paul  to  be  a  witness.  As  to  this,  all  the  various  visions 
and  revelations  of  tlie  Lord,  of  Avhich  St  Paul  was  counted  worthy, 
are  condensed  into  the  one  revelation  of  the  Son,  whom  he  should 

^  The  reading  vvv  thus  receives  a  new  argument  in  its  favour  :  the  cri- 
ticism of  MSS.  often  thus  finds  its  support  iu  sound  exposition. 


ACTS  XXVI.  lC-18.  49 

preach.  (Gal.  i.  12,  16.)  As  the  Apostle  writing  to  the  Galatians 
thus  appeals  to  it  as  one,  so  here  he  only  follows  the  Lord  Himself 
when  he  speaks,  in  the  spirit  of  Plis  words,  of  one  heavenly  appear- 
ance. "  To  appoint  thee  " — here  we  have,  so  to  speak,  the  proper 
ordination,  mission,  institution,  and  appointment  of  him  who  was 
called  and  prepared.^  Here  it  is  definitely  settled  Avho  was  the 
Twelfth  Apostle — as  chosen  by  Him  who  alone  had  the  right 
and  authority — ISIatthias  or  Paul.  But  the  apostolical  ofice,  as 
the  highest  rank — here  exactly  defined,  as  before  by  Ananias  it 
was  preparatorily  prophesied  of — embraces  in  itself  all  the 
degrees  of  the  other  offices ;  hence  this  super-episcopal  ordina- 
tion-formulary, with  profound  typical  meaning,  names  the 
three  essential  degrees  of  the  ruling  office  in  the  Church. 
Minister  is  the  first  and  most  general ;  the  Apostles  so  term 
themselves ;  and  yet  the  lowest  office  is  a  serv^  ant,  a  deaconship." 
j\Iinister  and  ivitness — a  more  definite  and  higher  term,  refer- 
ring to  the  ministry  of  the  word,  but  passing  here  over  into  the 
more  restricted  idea  of  eye-Avitness-ship.^  Finally,  the  "witness 
of  that  which  he  had  seen  "  points  in  this  place  definitely  to  the 
office  of  the  Apostle,  as  such.  This  first  having  seen  refers,  in 
the  case  of  St  Paul,  chiefly,  though  not  exclusively,  to  the  first 
great  appearance ;  but  it  is  then  declared  that  he  will  continue 
to  see  the  Lord  thus  appearing,  and  by  Plis  appearance  com- 
municating further  revelations.  The  Lord  will  make  Himself 
visible ;  for  it  is  said,  in  the  same  word  which  was  used  before 
— appear  to 'thee,  be  seen  of  thee.*  On  the  other  hand,  an  un- 
usual construction  follows:  "the  things  which  thou  hast  seen — 
the  things  which,  or  for  which,  in  relation  to  which,  I  will  appear 
to  thee,  revealing  them  to  thee  Myself. "  ^  Thus,  there  is  a  fur- 
ther advancement  after  the  three  stages  already  remarked  upon: 
St  Paul  is  appointed  not  only  to  be  an  Apostle,  but  to  be  an 

^  TLpo-^eipiTxadcci,  as  ch.  xxii.  14;  on  the  other  hand,  in  ch.  iii.  20  (where 
it  is  the  right  reading),  it  has  still  its  original  etymological  meaning. 

^  Here,  however,  in  the  original,  v'^yiperyig,  not  oi»y,ouo;:  this  latter  was 
originfi,lly  the  less  of  the  two,  equivalent  to  a  "waiter."  Comp.  Acts 
xiii.  5,  but  also  1  Cor.  iv.  1. 

^  As  in  Luke  i.  2  we  have  together  avroTrrxt  x.u.1  V7r-fipirui  roi  'Ao-yov. 

*  On  account  of  tliis  very  repetition,  we  must  reject  the  causative  mean- 
ing of  6(f)6yi<jof/.xi,  which,  though  Winer  half  approves  it,  is  strange  and  most 
questionable  in  itself.     So  Stolz  translates — "  make  known." 

*  After  the  Vulgate  :  (de)  quibus  apparebo  tibi  (porro). 

D 


50  FURTHER  APPEARAJ^CE  TO  SAUL. 

Apostle  clistinguisliecl  by  successive  continuous  appearances  of 
the  Lord;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  the  remaining  Apostles 
testified  only  the  things  which  they  had  seen  up  to  the  day  of 
the  Lord's  ascension.  (Ch.  i.  22.)  He  is  specifically  the  eye- 
witness (in  which  the  hearing  is  included)  of  the  glory  of  Jesus; 
on  the  other  hand,  St  Peter,  the  first  of  the  Apostles,  was  only  a 
Avitness  of  the  sufferings  of  Christ,  and  ixirtaher  of  the  gloiy 
which  should  afterwards  be  revealed.     1  Pet.  v.  1. 

If  we  may  apply  this  extraordinary  symbolical  procedure  to 
the  ordinary  ordination  of  every  one  who  ministers  with  the  testi- 
mony of  what  the  Lord  has  shown  \\\m.— every  ordination  not 
only  binds  a  man  to  faithful  ministry  according  to  his  present 
knowledge,  but  includes  the  promise  of  future  knowledge. 
There  is  the  encom'aging  promise  of  an  internal  help  against 
dangers  and  darkness,  of  the  Spirit  of  revelation  who  shall  always 
provide  a  new  testimony.  And  this  leads  us  to  the  fiu'ther 
promise  of  external  help. 

Delivering  thee  from  the  people  and  from  the 
Gentiles,  UNTO  whom  I  now  send  thee.  Listead  of  delivering 
(according  to  strict  etymology,  jylucking  out)  some  expositors 
would  understand,  "  Since  I  have  elected,  chosen,  separated  thee, 
taken  thee  out;"  but  this  has  decisive  reasons  against  it.^  It  is 
not  that  the  Apostle  here  paraphrases  and  reproduces  the  word 
concerning  the  "  chosen  vessel "  which  Ananias  had  told  him ; 
but  the  Lord  speaks  in  evident  allusion  to  the  many  sufferings 
which  awaited  him.  For,  where  saving  is  spoken  of,  there  must 
be  danger  and  need ;  which  St  Paul  well  understood,  and  there- 
fore rested  securely,  ver.  22,  on  this  heavenly  promise  of  God's 
help,  in  spite  of  all  plots  against  his  life.  Although  in  bonds 
and  tribulation,  he  stands  and  bears  witness !  The  Twelfth 
Apostle  also  has,  in  his  mission  into  the  world,  the  same  assur- 
ance as  the  others — Behold  I  am  with  you ! 

Peojyle  and  Gentiles  (as  St  Paid  also  repeats,  ver.  23),  is  a 
significant  phrase,  derived  from  the  Old  Testament,^  which  has 

^  So  Hess,  Heinrichs,  and  Kiihnijl.  But  tlie  pltraseology  of  the  Acts  is 
consistent  throughout — ch.  vii.  10,  34  ;  xii.  11 ;  xxiii.  27  ;  comp.  Gal.  i.  4. 
The  clioosing  could  not  follow  upon  the  appointing;  and  what  is  the  mean- 
ing of  an  election  from  among  Jews  and  Gentiles?  Is  it  that  he  was  the 
elect  of  humanity  ?     But  Paul  was  chosen  from  Israel. 

2  *In  the  Hebrew  it  is  well  known  that  o'J  and  Q-^';-!  correspond. 


ACTS  XXVI.  16-18.  51 

more  in  it  than  if  tlie  former  word  was  merely  a  strange  abbre- 
viation for  Gods  people.  Israel  was  through  the  election  of 
God  a  people,  with  the  essential  characteristics  of  a  people 
stamped  upon  them  in  a  manner  which  could  not  be  predicated 
of  any  heathen  race  in  its  natiu'al  condition.  Thus  they  were 
called  the  People  simply  (although  the  passages  cited  in  proof  by 
Baumgarten,  Isa.  xl.  7  ;  xxvi.  11,  are  not  strictly  appropriate)  ; 
the  heathens,  on  the  contrary,  were  called,  before  their  vocation, 
not-peoples,  Deut.  xxxii.  21,  while  Israel  was  the  ancient,  or  eter- 
nal, people,  Isa.  xliv.  7.  As  to  the  irrevocable  pre-eminence  and 
jjeculiar  dignity  of  Israel,  much  has  been  said  which  the  Scrip- 
ture does  not  support ;  but  the  fundamental  idea  is  strictly  a 
Biblical  element,  the  full  establishment  of  which,  however,  does 
not  belong  to  this  place. 

An  important  question  now  arises,  whether  the  "  among 
whom  I  send  thee"  must  be  referred  both  to  the  people  and  to 
the  Gentiles,  or  only  to  the  Gentiles.  I  maintained  the  latter 
with  some  zeal  at  an  earlier  period ;  but  now  retract.  It  can- 
not be  asserted  that  St  Paul  was  sent  exclusively  to  the 
Gentiles,  and  not  to  the  Jews  as  a  people.  The  present  more 
comprehensive  mission  is  quite  consistent  with  ch.  xxii,  21, 
notwithstanding  the  apparent  contradiction  ;  it  even  brings 
the  necessary  defence  against  a.  possible  misconception  of  that 
former  word.  St  Paul  does  not  stand  before  King  Agrippa  as 
exclusively  an  Apostle  to  the  Gentiles ;  for  in  ver.  20  he  plainly 
says  that,  being  obedient,  he  preached  repentance  both  to  the 
Jews  and  to  the  Gentiles  :  compare  ch.  xx.  21.  The  Lord's 
direction  in  the  temple  did  not  command  him  no  more  to  preach 
His  name  to  any  Jew  (which  would  have  contradicted  ch.  ix. 
15),  but  only  sent  him  at  once  away  from  Jerusalem,  from 
the  hardened  capital,  in  which  the  election  of  those  capable  of 
faith  was  already  complete.  But  in  the  dispersion  among  the 
Gentiles  it  had  yet  to  be  gathered  in.  Wherever  the  Apostle 
went  to  the  Gentiles,  he  found  the  People  among  the  peoples, 
the  first-called,  first-elected  people;  and  turned,  as  we  always 
read,  first  to  the  Jews.  The  way  to  the  Gentiles  led  through 
the  synagogue  itself ;  and  again  the  work  of  salvation  among 
the  Gentiles  will  find  its  issue  in  the  conversion  of  Israel — as 
the  order  is  in  ch.  ix.  15.  It  formerly  appeared  to  me  that 
another  reason  against  referring  this  sending  to  the  People  was 


52  FURTHER  APPEARANCE  TO  SAUL. 

to  be  found  in  the  success  promised  in  ver.  18,  wliicli  miglit 
seem  to  contradict  cli.  xxii.  18,  and  fm'tlier,  cli.  xxviii.  25-28. 
But,  wlien  closely  examined,  all  contradiction  disappears.  There 
is  no  direct  promise  in  ver.  18  of  universal  success  :  even  of 
the  Gentiles  Rom.  x.  16  holds  good ;  Avhile  some  of  the  Jews 
were  saved,  in  contradistinction  to  whom  the  unbelievers  are 
termed  in  Eom.  iii.  3  only  some.  The  abiding  election  and 
unrevoked  destination  of  Israel  will  not  allow  us  to  admit  the 
idea  of  an  exclusive  Apostle  to  the  Gentiles,  in  the  strict  sense 
of  the  term ;  that  St  Paul  was  not  intended  to  be  such,  we 
learn  here  from  the  lips  of  Jesus  Himself,  and  it  is  confirmed 
b}^  the  whole  life  of  the  Apostle.  The  direct  contrast  which  I 
formerly  insisted  upon — "  The  eyes  of  Israel  were  rather  more 
fully  closed,  so  that  they  turned  from  light  to  darkness,  from 
God  to  the  power  of  Satan,  so  that  they  lost  the  forgiveness  of 
sins  and  forfeited  the  inheritance  of  the  saints  from  whom  they 
were  cast  out,  and  all  through  their  unbelief  on  Jesus" — is  true 
only  of  the  great  mass,  and  even  of  them  true  only  in  part,  true 
of  the  people  as  such  only  for  a  season,  as  Rom.  xi.  testifies. 
The  immediate  and  obvious  mission  to  both  Jews  and  Gentiles 
is  further  established  by  the  words  which  precede ;  to  wit,  that 
the  delivering  of  the  Apostle  was  to  be  first  from  the  People, 
and  the  Jews  were,  as  ver.  21  and  all  the  history  shows,  the 
most  vehement  persecutors  of  the  Gospel.  If  St  Paul  had  not 
been  sent  to  the  People,  he  would  not  have  needed  to  be  deli- 
vered from  them. 

After  observing  once  more  that,  as  the  noio  sending  shows, 
the  present  appearance  cannot  be  placed  after  ch.  xiii.,  and  at 
furthest  only  simultaneous  with  it,  confirmmg  the  call  of  the 
prophetic  Spirit — "  I  Myself  give  thee  now  thy  commission, 
with  its  full  authority  and  all  the  instruction  that  it  needs"  — 
we  now  turn  to  the  second  and  more  important  part  of  our 
Lord's  words,  which  contains  their  full  and  liighest  significance. 

For  what  is  the  Apostle  sent  ?  What  is  the  purport,  alid 
Mhat  the  commission  of  this  sending, — the  task,  duty,  and 
power  of  His  office  ?     To  open  their  eyes,  that  they  may 

BE  CONVERTED  FROM  DARKNESS  TO  LIGHT,  AND  FROM  THE 

POWER  OF  Satan  unto  God  ;  that  they  ihay  receive 

FORGIVENESS  OF  SINS,  AND  THE  INHERITANCE  AJMONG  THEM 
THAT  ARE  SANCTIFIED   THROUGH  FAITH  THAT  IS  IN  Me.      It 


-      ACTS  XXVI.  16-18.  53 

is  remarkable,  and  to  be  lamented,  that  iliis  verse,  one  of  the 
most  important  and  comprehensive  in  the  Bible,  is  so  seldom 
set  forth  in  its  grand  importance,  so  seldom  developed  into  all 
its  fulness  of  meaning.  We  have  here,  from  the  lips  of  the 
Lord  in  heaven,  the  rule  of  the  pastoral  office,  and  the  plan  of 
salvation.  Instruction  for  the  office  of  preaching  the  Woi'd 
generally,  not  merely  for  St  Paul's  :  the  way  of  salvation 
therein  for  all  who  are,  through  all  ages,  sanctified  and  saved 
through  faith  in  Jesus.  The  prize  and  goal  of  the  heavenly 
calling  for  all  sinners  upon  earth ; — the  way  to  this  end,  its 
beginning  and  continuance ; — the  stages  of  the  way  from  first 
to  last ; — the  great  work  as  the  result  of  God's  power,  and  yet 
through  human  faith,  being  carried  on  through  the  obedience 
and  in  the  wills  of  the  called; — all  this  is  set  forth  as  in  large 
and  most  important  general  lines.  What  does  God  require 
from  us  in  the  beginning,  when  He  sends  His  preached  Word 
by  His  ministers  and  witnesses  ?  That,  when  He  opens  our 
eyes,  we  be  converted  and  turn  !  What  will  the  grace  of  God 
then  confer  upon  us  ?  At  the  outset,  and  so  continually,  for- 
giveness of  sins; — at  the  glorious  consummation,  the  heavenly 
.  inheritance,  eternal  life  !  What  is  ever  the  certain  way  from 
beginnmg  to  end?  Sanctification  through  the  same  faith  in 
Him,  appointed  to  be  our  Saviour,  through  Whom  alone  all  is 
accompKshed  and  takes  effect !  We  cannot  abstain  from  giv- 
ing the  analysis,  as  it  is  found  in  our  "  Reden  der  Apostel." 
This  heavenly  designation  to  the  office  of  the  Word  may  thus 
be  resolved : 

I.  The  simple  preliminary  official  commission — to  open  their 
eyes. 

H.    The  more  detailed  process  which  explains  that  com- 
mission. 

I.  The  end  or  result  which  must  be  faithfully  aimed  at. 
1.  The  condition  on  the  side  of  men,  placed  in 
their  own  freedom,  disclosing  the  ground  of 
all,  and  hinting  at  the  end :  that  they  he  con- 
verted, that  is,  may  tm'n, 

A.  With  reference  to  their  condition — 

from  darkness  to  light. 

B.  With  reference  to  the  ground  of  that 


54  rURTHEE  APPEARANCE  TO  SiAUL. 

condition — from  tlie  power  of  Satan 
unto  God. 
2.  Consequence  and  promise  on  the  side  of  God, 
flowing  from  His  grace :  that  they  may  re- 
ceive— 

A.  What? 

a.  The  first  gift,  ground  of  all  that 

follows — forgiveness  of  sins. 

b.  Final  gift,  goal  of  all  that  pre- 
'  ceded — the  inheritance. 

B.  How  ?      The  way  and  condition  of 

sanctijication,  carrying  with  it  still 
human  freedom.     For 
II.  The  sole  means  for  the  accomplishment  of  all  is  — 
Faith  in  Me  ! 

This  general  arrangement  will  exhibit  and  establish  the 
time  meaning  of  the  several  clauses,  which,  taken  singly  and 
isolated,  may  easily  be  misunderstood.  The  one  thing  which  is, 
properly  speaking,  committed  to  the  Apostle,  which  he  should 
and  would  accomplish,  is  the  opening  of  the  eyes  by  the  word  of 
testimony.  It  was  for  him  certainly  to  labour  with  all  diligence 
for  all  that  should  follow ;  but  that  conversion  is  far  from 
always  following  to  which  the  gift  of  God's  grace  is  promised 
and  can  be  given.  Who,  further,  opens  in  reality  the  eyes  of 
the  blind?  Assiu'edly,  as  an  instrmnent,  he  who  is  sent  for 
that  purpose ;  else  it  would  not  be  stated  what  that  messenger 
should  perform  and  accomplish.  When  it  was  first  said.  To 
this  end  I  send  thee !  it  means,  I  give  thee  authority  and 
power  to  this  end  !  Consequently,  it  is  fundamentally  only 
He,  the  Lord  Himself,  given  of  God  to  be  a  covenant  of  the 
People  and  a  light  to  the  Gentiles,  who  opcneth  the  eyes  of  the 
blind,  and  delivereth  those  who  are  bound  of  Satan  out  of  the 
prison-house  of  darkness :  see  Isa.  xlii.  G,  7,  which  prophetic 
passage  Jesus  here  out  of  heaven  calls  to  mind,  just  as  He  did 
the  connected  passage,  Isa.  Ixi.  1,  2,  in  His  oion  first  preaching 
in  Nazareth,  Luke  iv.  Wliat  a  glorious  concurrence  and 
coincidence  of  the  abiding  fundamental  thouijhts  of  the  exalted 
and  the  humbled  Lord  !  He  alone,  the  Lord  Himself,  makes 
the  beginning,  in  the  prevenient  power  of  the  Spirit  of  His 


,  ACTS  XXYI.  lG-18.  -  55 

grace ;  but  it  is  tlirougli  the  word  of  His  witnesses.  Humanity 
lies  before  Him,  wlien  He  looks  down  upon  it  from  lieaven,  so 
far  revolted  and  fallen  as  to  be  too  blinded  even  to  see  the  true 
way  of  conversion.  Thus  has  Satan  smitten  it  with  darkness, 
even  while  he  promised  to  open  its  eyes.  Then  cometh  into 
the  world  the  light  of  God,  in  the  gloiy  of  which  Jesus  appeared 
to  Saul,  and  shineth  so  bright  that,  while  the  darkness  Avhere  it 
remaineth  will  not  apprehend  and  receive  it,  it  at  the  same  time 
mai/  receive  it  and  ought.  The  light  shineth  sovereignly 
through  the  veil  of  the  eyes,  enforces  its  first  recognition — This 
is  light !  from  every  man — but,  alas,  most  men  even  then  love 
darkness  rather  than  light.  Who  then  are  they  of  whom  it  is 
said,  their  eyes  ?  Manifestly,  no  other  than  those  "  among 
whom  I  send  thee;"  that  is,  all  to  whom  it  is  preached.  He 
to  whom  the  saving  grace  of  God  hath  appeared  in  the  Gospel, 
has  been  constrained  to  see  the  light  at  its  first  shining ;  the 
way  has  been  shown  to  him,  the  truth  has  been  spoken  to  him, 
the  awakening  word  Arise!  hath  seized  him  in  order  to  the 
opening  of  his  eyes. 

But  that  which  now  follows  is  left  with  the  freedom  of  man. 
As  the  Lord  sends  the  Apostle  to  this  end,  that  he  may  open  the 
eyes  of  men,  so  their  eyes  are  opened  to  this  end,  that  they  may 
be,  converted  and  turn.  But  they  are  not  all  obedient  to  the 
Gospel.  Many,  yea,  the  greater  part,  wilfully  shut  their  eyes 
all  the  more  closely,  unto  the  worse  bhndness  and  hardening  of 
unbelief.  The  latter  part  of  the  clause  has  been  made  parallel 
with  the  former,  and  thus  construed,  "  To  open  their  eyes  and 
to  convert  them ;"  but  this  arrangement  cannot  in  any  way  be 
justified.^  The  turning,  as  the  receiving,  lies  with  man ;  the 
former  being  the  condition  of  the  latter.  Where  otherwise 
would  be  the  first  expression  of  that  faith,  which  is  at  the  last 
laid  down  as  the  great  condition  remaining  with  the  freedom 
of  man  ?  The  first  thing  which  any  man  does,  or  can,  or 
should  do,  whose  eyes  have  been  opened  to  see  his  error  and 
wretchedness,  is  obviously  to  turn  himself  from  his  miseiy  for 

^  It  is  true  that  Ivtarpiy^xi  occurs  thus  transitively  Luke  i.  16,  17, 
Jas.  V.  19,  20 ;  and  in  Acts  xiv.  15,  and  iii.  26,  according  to  the  right 
exposition.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  more  usually  said,  and  especially  of 
the  heathen,  that  men  convert  themselves :  1  Thess.  i.  9,  Acts  xv.  3, 19  ;  and 
in  ver,  20  of  our  chapter,  this  interpretation  of  what  went  before  is  given. 


56  FURTHER  APPEARANCE  TO  SAUL. 

help :  compare  the  same  connection  in  Luke  i.  79.  The 
Apostle,  indeed,  whose  own  eyes  had  been  opened  by  the  hght 
of  the  Lord,  should  and  could  open  their  eyes  ;  he  was  to  carry 
to  them  the  same  messafje  which  Ananias  brouirht  to  himself 
— "Brethren,  the  Lord  Jesus  hath  sent  me  that  ye  may  re- 
ceive your  sight."  But  more  than  that  he  camiot  effect,  in 
opposition  to  the  will  of  those  who  hear  him.  They  may  and 
should  turn  thejuselves  from  darkness  to  light,  because  their 
eyes  have  been  opened ;  if  they  do  so,  they  can  receive  the  gift 
of  gi'ace,  and  can  become  sanctified,  because  they  have  received 
in  the  forgiveness  of  sins  the  ground  of  that  holiness,  and,  in 
the  hope  of  the  promised  inheritance,  invigoration  for  the 
faithful  maintenance  of  faith  unto  the  end.  This,  and  no 
other,  is  the  true  order  of  salvation.  This  is  what  St  Paul 
exhibits  to  Agrippa  and  the  whole  assembly ;  for  he  preaches 
also  to  them  that  they  should  be  converted  and  become  such  as 
he  was  (ver.  29). 

Hence  it  appears  that  this  first  opening  of  the  eyes  is  some- 
thing altogether  different  from  the  later  following,  rather  already 
presupposed,  enlujldenment.  Christ  can  give  light  only  to  him 
who  has  not  only  been  awakened,  but  has  arisen  up  (in  conver- 
sion, Eph.  V.  14).  That  produces  then  the  enlightened  eyes  of 
the  heart  (Eph.  i.  18,  in  the  right  reading)  in  those  who  have 
already  tasted  the  heavenly  gift  (Heb.  vi.  14).  On  the  other 
hand,  the  first  opening  does  not  give  a  man  clearly  to  hnow  the 
hoj^e  of  the  calling,  the  riches  of  the  glorious  inheritance,  the 
exceeding  greatness  of  the  power  of  God  in  those  who  believe : 
he  only  distinguishes,  at  first,  like  children  learning  to  see,  the 
darkness  from  the  light ;  he  can  only  say  this  one  thing — I  was 
in  darkness  and  blindness,  but  now  I  see  the  light !  (John 
ix.  25.) 

The  old  state  from  which,  and  the  new  state  to  which,  Ave 
turn,  are  described  simply  as  states,  as  darkness  and  light,  accord- 
ing to  the  general  language  of  Scriptui'e,  and  1  Pet.  ii.  9,  10 
particularly,  where  the  call  is  similarly  defined.  They  who 
receive  the  call  in  faith,  convert  or  turn  themselves  (round,  back) 
from  their  darkness  to  the  light  which  has  appeared ;  not  that 
they  perfectly  come  out  of  the  darkness,  and  enter  the  perfect 
condition  of  light — which  would  be  regeneration  itself,  or,  in- 
deed, the  finished  goal  of  sanctification — but  that  they  penitently 


ACTS  XXVI.  lG-18.  57 

turn  themselves  from  their  old  character  luith  desire  toioards  tlie 
li<Tht  of  God,  towards  the  right  way  of  a  better  life  as  exhibited 
by  the  lio;ht  of  truth.  This  tui'ning  from  and  turning  towards 
are  called  elsewhere  repentance  and  conversion  (ver.  20,  ch.  iii. 
19)  ;  but  because  both  are  inseparable  in  their  union,  each  ex- 
pression may  stand  alone,  inclusive  of  the  other,  for  the  whole. 
(So  here  conversion,  as  in  ch.  xx.  21  repentance.) 

As  soon,  then,  as  this  conversion  becomes  real  and  effectual, 
there  follows  as  its  necessaiy  consequence,  not  indeed  that  full 
and  complete  insight  into  Satan's  kingdom  and  power,  and  the 
light  and  nature  of  God,  which  is  reserved  for  our  perfection, 
but  at  least  a  commencing  insight  into  the  deeper  ground  of  that 
twofold  condition ;  as  the  preaching  word  exhibits  it,  in  order  to 
excite  the  profound  attention  of  the  soul.  It  is  Satan,  in  whose 
power  are  not  merely  the  heathens  (as  the  Jewish  maxim  was), 
but  all  bhnd  sinners  in  common;  for  the  darkness  is  from 
Satan,  and  he  is  the  prince  of  the  power  of  darkness  upon  eart>i. 
(Col.  i.  13).  It  is  Satan  who  keeps  closed  the  eyes  which  would 
otherwise  open  themselves  even  to  the  natm*al  light  which  visits 
all.  It  is  God,  the  fountain  of  light,  to  lead  back  sinners  to 
Avhom,  from  their  deep  apostasy,  is  the  great  aim  of  the  whole 
work  of  gi'ace.  He  who  is  exalted  in  heaven  still  speaks  with 
all  plainness —  as  He  formerly  did  accordmg  to  the  orthodox  faith 
of  the  Jews — of  Satan  (comp.  five  times  in  the  Epistles  from 
heaven.  Rev.  ii.  and  iii.);  this  doctrine  must  be  preached  to  the 
Gentiles  also,  and  must  by  them  also  be  acknowledged  as  a 
fundamental  truth.  It  may  be  said  that  "from  darkness  to 
light"  refers  rather  to  the  blinded  Jews,  and  "from  Satan's 
power  to  God  "  rather  to  the  Gentiles,  altogether  sundered  from 
God  and  in  the  power  of  evil.^  But  this*  has  only  a  relative 
tnith;  for  both  in  their  deepest  principle  refer  to  all  sinners 
who  are  to  be  converted  (sinners  of  tlie  Jews,  sinners  of  the 
Gentiles,  Gal.  ii.  15). 

All  darbiess  is  a  prison  (Isa.  xlii.  7),  and  its  bonds  and 
chains  are  the  bondage  of  hell  (2  Pet.  ii.  4 ;  Jude  6).  There 
is  a  poicer  of  darkness  which  holds  and  enslaves  men.  However 
easy  and  sudden  might  seem  the  first  conversion  at  the  begin- 
ning,  as  the  mere  tm-ning  from  darkness  towards  light,  the 

1  As  similarly  in  ver.  20  :  tlie  Jews  must  repent,  and  the  Gentiles  be 
converted  to  God. 


58  FUilTHER  APPEARANCE  TO  SAUL. 

process  reveals  an  enchaining  power  which  Avill  not  let  man  go. 
And  in  this  God  alone  can  help ;  to  Him  therefore  alone  man 
must  more  fully  tm'n.  It  is  not  said  "to  the  power  of  God;" 
the  name  of  God  is  enough,  and  its  might  is  placed  alone  in  opposi- 
tion to  all  other  power.  Nor  is  the  light,  again,  an  imprison- 
ment ;  we  do  not  become  servants  of  God,  as  we  had  been  servants 
of  Satan  and  of  sin.  The  kingdom  of  the  Son  of  His  love  is 
opened,  in  blessed  freeness  and  liberty  (Col.  i.  13) — the  open 
access  even  to  the  heart  of  God,  properly  to  God  I 

But  with  the  first  step  of  convei'sion  to  God  begins  the 
receiving ;  for  he  that  draws  nigh  to  God  receives  from  Him. 
The  first  full  gift  for  the  rebellious,  which  itself  was  secretly 
included  when  He  gave  repentance  and  awakened  to  life  and  con- 
version, and  which  must  then  be  consciously  received  with  joy, 
is — fotyiveness  of  sins.  "  The  recollection  of  one's  own  sins  is 
the  real  centre  of  all  self-consciousness"  (Baumgarten) ; — by 
this  consciousness,  fully  awakened  in  conversion,  the  merciful 
Lord  now  seizes  the  sinner,  who  in  his  first  penitent  coming  to 
the  rebuking  light  of  grace  has  already  performed  a  work  in 
God ;  and  thus,  in  the  consciousness  of  received  forgiveness,  the 
new  man  is  fully  born.  This  is  now  light  instead  of  darkness, 
fellowship  with  God  instead  of  servitude  to  Satan,  the  deceiver 
and  accuser.  This  is  ever  the  first  pure  grace ;  received  out  of 
the  fulness  of  God  the  Saviour,  not  yet  as  grace  for  grace,  but 
as  grace  solely  for  our  sin.  Observe,  that  we  were  mider  the 
power  of  Satan,  not  without  oiu:  oavii  will  and  om'  own  guilt ; 
notwithstandino;  there  is  full  forgiveness  for  that  and  for  all  our 
sins. 

That  in  the  economy  of  salvation  the  same  forgiveness  of 
sins,  the  great  grace  of  the  New  Testament,  must  ever  be  laid 
throughout  the  whole  process  of  sanctification  as  the  foundation 
of  a  continual  new  beginning,  even  as  thence  alone  power  cometh 
to  the  faint  (Isa.  xxxiii.  24) — that  access  into  the  strengthening 
fellowship  of  the  Lord,  whose  flesh  and  blood  we  eat  and  di'ink 
that  He  may  live  in  us,  is  opened  to  us  only  through  the  con- 
tinual new  appropriation  of  forgiveness — of  all  this  we  speak 
not  now  more  at  large ;  since  the  exposition  of  the  individual 
sayings  would  thus  lead  us  into  the  whole  doctrinal  system,  and 
ethical  relations,  of  the  plan  of  salvation.  We  go  on  to  observe 
with  what  wonderful  suddenness  the  and  connects  tlte  inlientance 


ACTS  XXVI.  IG-IS.  59 

with  the  forgiveness,  the,  end  with  the  begmning.^  For  God, 
who  begins,  finishes  also  His  work  in  all  those  who  cease  not  to 
receive  from  Him.  It  might  be  said  here  also  that  the  forcnve- 
ness  of  sins  is  referred  rather  to  Israel,  and  the  portion  in  God's 
inheritance  rather  to  the  Gentiles ;  comp.  Eph.  i.  and  Col.  i. 
But,  in  the  Apostle's  doctrine  in  these  chapters,  and  still  more 
fully  here,  both  are  connected  together  in  one.  The  pecvdiar 
expression  used  ^  might  also  be  translated — a  lot,  a  portion  of 
the  inheritance — and  that  would  be  perfectly  true  as  it  respects 
the  individual  appropriation ;  but  the  comprehensive  sajdng  here 
pre-eminently  refers  to  the  Lord's  new  people  as  such,  gathered 
from  the  People  and  the  Gentiles  alike.  It  is  "  the  inheritance 
of  the  saints  in  light " — first  as  reserved  for  us  in  heaven  (1  Pet. 
i.  4)  ;  and  then,  if  we  attain  unto  the  end  of  faith,  received  as 
the  salvation  of  the  soul ;  but  finally  as  consummate  glory  on 
the  new  and  heavenly  earth,  of  which  Canaan  was  the  type. 

But  what  is,  finally,  the  condition — wliich  again  assumes  our 
freedom,  our  receiving,  retaining,  and  using  the  gift  of  God — 
the  only  way  from  the  forgiveness  of  sins  to  the  inheritance  ? 
The  inheritance  of  the  saiyits  in  light  is  only  for  them  that  are 
sanctified.  This  sanctification  is  possible  only  on  the  ground  of 
grace  received,  and  in  the  knowledge  of  the  goal  set  before  us ; 
but  we  reach  that  goal  only  as  perfect,  when  sanctification  is 
fully  accomplished — and  this  is  plainly  spoken  in  the  carefully 
chosen  word  "sanctified."^  The  enterinir  amono;  the  sanctified 
is  reckoned  with  that  which  is  received,  as  the  last,  highest,  and 
perfect  gift  of  God's  grace  (Rom.  vi.  23) ;  but  it  is  also,  on 
the  other  hand,  regarded  as  the  condition  and  limitation  of 
the  receiving — Only  among  those  that  are  sanctified!      Such 

^  So  Col.  i.  12-14,  and  the  tHrd  section  of  the  Apostles'  Creed. 

2  Kxjjflo?,  derived  from  the  Old  Testament,  and  glorified  in  the  New — on 
which  a  whole  treatise  might  be  -RTitten. 

*  "  For,  whereas  the  deficiency  of  Israel's  sanctification  was  proved  by 
the  fact,  that  in  the  possession  of  their  inheritance  they  became  proud,  and 
in  the  gifts  of  the  earth  forgot  their  Maker  and  Eedeemer  (Deut.  xxxii.  15), 
the  New  Testament  saints  are  not  introduced  into  the  possession  of  their  in- 
heritance until  they  have  proved  by  deeds  that  they  prefer  the  pure  and  holy 
communion  of  the  soul  with  God,  without  any  external  corporeal  addition, 
to  all  and  every  possession  upon  earth,  and  thereby  accomphsh  the  total 
dehverance  of  their  souls  from  the  entire  kingdom  of  darkness  and  of  Satan." 
— (Baumgarten,  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  vol.  iii.,  p.  167,  Clark's  edition.) 


GO  FURTHER  APPEARANCE  TO  SAUL- 

will  there  be  at  the  last,  and  they  shall  receive  the  inheritance. 
Yet  not  with  all  that  were  called; — for  many  of  them,  alas,  will 
forget  to  make  their  calling  and  election  sure!  (2  Pet.  i.  9-11)  — 
with  all  that  are  sanctified  we  shall  enter  the  everlasting  Idng- 
dora.  But  this  fellowship  with  all  saints  (ch.  xx.  32)  is  an 
essential  elevation  of  final  blessedness,  although  God  Himself 
will  for  ever  be  the  ground  and  spring  of  that  blessedness. 

There  only  remains  the  inexpressibly  important  and  sublime 
conclusion — through  faith  icJiich  is  in  Me;  in  which  the  Son  of 
God,  the  only  Saviour  of  all  the  world,  unites  poor  believing 
sinners  upon  earth  with  His  own  glory  in  heaven,  and  with  His 
own  exalted  person.  It  has  been  needlessly  disputed  whether 
this  "by  faith"  refers  more  narrowly  to  the  "sanctified  by 
faith,"  or  points  further  back  to  the  receiving}  We  have 
already  given  our  decision  that  faith  here  comes  last  as  the  only 
means  of  the  whole;  it  is  not  merely  receiving,  but  also  persevering 
faith,  faith  which  is  approved  and  confirmed  through  obedient 
fidelity  even  to  the  end.  We  are  indeed  finally  sanctified  only 
through  faith ;  but  only  through  faith  were  we  converted,  and 
received  the  forgiveness  of  sins.  And  this  faith  which  we  hold 
fast  from  stage  to  stage  through  obedience  and  fidelity,  in  the 
warrino;  of  the  sood  warfare  for  the  fulfilment  of  our  course 
(2  Tim.  iv.  7),  is  not  only  a  faith  in  God,  but  in  Him  also 
through  whom  alone  we  can  have  faith  and  hope  towards  God 
(1  Pet.  i.  21) — hi  the  Lord  Jesus,  who  here  saith  out  of  heaven, 
Through  faith  that  is  in  Me  !  Faith  in  His  name,  His  word 
generally,  di'aws  and  turns  us  round  from  Satan  to  God  ;  faith 
in  Him  who  was  dead  gives  us  the  forgiveness  of  sins ;  faith  in 
the  risen  Lord  gives  us  power  unto  renewal  in  holiness ;  faith  in 
the  glorified  Lord  strengthens  in  us  the  hope  of  the  inheritance  ; 
through  faith  in  the  whole  Christ  we  attain  to  our  whole  salva- 
tion.  Thus  majestically  does  this  Saviour  in  heaven,  without 
whom  there  is  no  salvation  for  all  men  under  heaven  (Acts  iv. 
12),  place  Himself  in  the  stead  of  God,  on  Avhose  throne  He 
sitteth  for  us. 

Faith,  Faith,  nothing  but  Faith — this  is  and  must  ever 
be  the  simple,  and  nevertheless  not  easy,  way  to  the  end  of 

^  For  certainly,  as  Baumgartcn  beautifully  thoiigli  rather  scliolastically 
says,  "  Faith  is  the  ethical  consummation  of  the  receptive  capacity,  over 
which  Satan  has  obtained  no  power." 


ACTS  X.  13-10  ;   XI.  7-10.  61 

glory.  It  is  the  vocation  of  all  the  Lord's  ambassadors  to  pro- 
claim the  obedience  of  faith  in  His  name.  Plere  before  Agrippa 
St  Paul  answers  for  himself  — "  Thns  did  He  speak  to  me, 
and  how  shoidd  I  not  believe  in  Him?  Thus  did  He  com- 
mand me — Preach  the  faith  that  is  in  Me !  How  should  I  not 
testify  of  Him?"  St  Paul  had  seen  Him;  but  only  to  the 
end  that  he  might  preach  faith  and  the  not-seeing.  St  Paul 
is  in  a  certain  sense  pre-eminently  the  Apostle  of  faith,  yet 
only  as  it  regards  his  doctrinal  system — for  what  Apostle  either 
preaches  or  teaches  anything  but  faith  ?  Here  we  must  resist 
the  strange  theory  of  Baumgarten,  and  not  allow  that  "He 
lays  on  the  shoulders  of  St  Paul  alone,  after  St  Peter  and  the 
rest  of  the  original  Apostles  had  accomplished  their  work,  by 
Avhich  the  first  foundation  of  the  Church  was  laid,  the  work  of 
His  salvation  for  the  nations  of  the  earth — and  that,  for  the 
immediately  subsequent  period,  St  Paul  is  introduced  as  being 
exclusively  entrusted  with  the  guidance  and  extension  of  the 
Clim'ch  !  I "  Where  in  all  the  Scripture  is  this  wi'itten  ? 
Where  in  this  mission  and  instruction  is  there  any  token  of 
this  exclusiveness  ?  With  all  the  others  (1  Cor.  ix.  5,  xv.  9), 
he  executed  his  office — as  the  least  of  them,  who  in  His  work 
became  the  greatest ;  but  it  is  the  same  office  which,  as  having 
authority  to  call  sinners  through  faith  in  Jesus  to  salvation,  is 
continued  even  in  every  vocation  to  preach  and  bear  witness. 
That  which  we  have  expounded  upon  ver.  18  in  particular, 
holds  good  of  every  preacher,  and  of  all  hearers,  without  any 
deduction  for  the  specific  authority  or  power  conferred  on  St 
Paul. 


V. 

TO  ST  PETER  IN  THE  TRANCE  UPON  THE  HOUSETOP. 

(Acts  X.  13-16  ;  xi.  7-10.) 

It  is  not  consistent  with  the  opinion  which  elevates  St  Paul 
high  above  the  first  Apostolate  of  the  Twelve,  that  the  first 
transition  of  the  Gospel  to  the  Gentiles,  properly  so  called,  was 
not  reserved  for  the  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles,  but  that  St  Peter 


62       TO  ST  PETER  IN  THE  TRAJSTCE  UPON  THE  HOUSETOP. 

was  in  this  respect  also  chosen  to  be  first  (ch.  xv.  7).  Thus, 
as  St  Paul  was  not  exclusively  an  Apostle  to  the  heathen  world, 
so  those  who  were  Apostles  before  him  did  not,  as  their  very 
vocation  for  all  the  nations  intimates,  confine  themselves  to 
Israel.  After  Saul  had  preached  to  the  .Jews  in  the  syna- 
gogues of  Damascus — probably  during  his  protracted  sojourn 
in  Ai-abia,  and  still  more  probably  before  the  Lord  had  an- 
nounced to  him  his  mission  to  the  Gentiles^ — St  Peter  receives 
the  revelation  which  constrained  him  to  preach  to  Cornelius. 
We  have  not  arranged  these  expositions  strictly  in  chronolo- 
gical order  (there  might  have  been  some  difficulty  in  deter- 
mining it,  if  we  had  so  purposed)  ;  for  it  was  our  object  to  give 
the  stages  of  St  Paul's  callino-  in  their  connection. 

But  we  shall  at  the  same  time  observe  that,  although  St 
Peter  was  acknowledged  as  the  first  in  preaching  to  the  Gen- 
tiles (which,  however,  did  not  involve  any  other  pre-eminence, 
and  make  him  a  "  prince  of  the  Ajjostles "),  he  comes  behind 
St  Paul  in  his  o^vn  personal  endowanents,  and  in  his  capacity 
for  special  revelations  and  gifts  of  the  Lord.  On  this  subject 
— how  this  is  to  be  understood,  and  how  not;  how  St  Paul, 
dignified  by  higher  revelations,  was  not  therefore  before  the 
Lord  of  higher  account — we  cannot  now  more  particularly 
dwell :  it  may  be  enough  for  our  purpose  to  establish  the  fact 
that  St  Peter  did  not  see  the  Lord  of  glory,  and  receive  imme- 
diate revelations  from  Him,  in  the  same  manner  as  St  Paul 
did.^  An  angel  had  led  him,  with  all  the  Apostles,  oiit  of  the 
prison  some  time  before,  and  afterAvards  yve  find  the  Spirit 
speaking  to  him  (ch.  x.  19  ;  just  as  to  Philip,  ch.  viii.  29). 
It  is  remarkable  that  the  Holy  Ghost,  who  in  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles  specially  guides  the  ISIissionary  Church,  here  person- 
ally says — I  have  sent  the  men  (comp.  ch.  xiii.  2) — yet  this  is 
not  the  I  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Himself,  which  had  spoken  to  St 
Paul.      The  voice,  again,  which  St  Peter  receives  in  the  vision 

^  For  St  Peter  was  then  again  in  Jerusalem ;  having  returned  from  the 
itinerary  which  St  Luke  supplementarily  records.  The  particulars  of  all 
this  are  not  easily  arranged. 

^  Had  it  been  so,  we  should  have  found  some  record  of  it  in  Scripture, 
as  of  a  matter  highly  momentous.  On  the  other  hand,  St  Peter  in  his 
(genuine  !)  Second  Epistle  appeals  only  to  this,  that  he  had  been  an  "  eye- 
witness of  the  Lord's  glory"  upon  the  mount ;  and  in  ch.  iii.  16  he  with 
beautiful  humility  admits  the  superior  wisdom  given  to  his  brother  Paul, 


ACTS  X.  13-16;   XI.  7-10.  63 

of  a  trance,  could  be  no  other  than  that  of  the  Lord — this 
seems  due  at  once  to  him  and  the  object  concerned.  Angels 
speak  in  the  New  Testament  (not  now  to  speak  particularly  of 
the  Old  Testament),  even  when  they  do  not  become  visible,  as 
in  the  case  of  Cornelius,  in  dreams  and  visions ;  but  we  never 
read  of  trance  in  connection  wdth  them.  Nor  can  we  conceive 
that  it  was  merely  an  indefinite  voice,  merely  an  appendage  of 
the  vision  which  admitted  no  question  as  to  ivJio  it  was  that 
spoke ;  for  St  Peter  addi'esses  the  speaker  immediately  as  Lord. 
But,  finally,  the  voice  "  of  God"  speaks  in  the  New  Testament 
most  expressly  (as  in  the  Old  Testament  latently)  through  the 
Son  alone,  and  now  throuo;h  the  exalted  Jesus  Christ.  Althoush 
St  Peter  afterwards,  ver.  28,  says  that  God  had  showed  him 
the  truth,  he  speaks  thus  at  the  first  in  the  hearing  of  Corne- 
lius, only  in  order  that  he  might  not  inappropriately  anticipate 
his  preaching  concerning  Jesus  Christ,  the  Lord  of  all  (ver.  36). 

Tlu'ee  times  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  the  great  manifes- 
tation to  Saul  is  described ;  and  at  least  twice  the  manifestation 
to  Peter,  which  of  itself  was  of  great  importance  in  relation  to 
this  great  crisis  and  turning-point  in  the  coui'se  of  the  kingdom 
of  God.  By  the  repeated  narrative  it  is  made  abundantly  plain 
that  the  Apostle  did  not  see  and  hear  what  He  saw  and  heard, 
for  himself  alone;  but  for  all  to  whom,  through  him,  it  was 
spoken  and  delivered. 

^Vliile  St  Peter  was  engaged  in  a  successful  mission  at  Joppa 
among  the  Jews  (ch.  ix.  42,  43),  and  on  the  same  day  that  the 
messengers  from  Cornelius  were  on  their  way  to  him,  he  went 
up  at  noontide  to  the  housetop  to  pray.  For,  his  practised  piety 
had  added  to  the  two  customary  hom-s  of  prayer  (at  the  morn- 
ing and  evening  sacrifice)  the  third  at  mid-day,  which  had  also 
become  a  custom  (Ps.  Iv.  18;  Dan.  vi.  10).  The  flat  roofs  of 
the  houses  had  ordinarily  an  upper  chamber,^  whither  men  were 
accustomed  to  retreat  for  thought  or  devotion  ;  but  the  tanner's 
house  may  be  supposed  to  have  had  an  open  roof,  since  the 
vision  supposes  the  mi  obstructed  heavens  to  be  before  him.  It 
is  m  prayer  that  the  revelation  comes  to  St  Peter,  as  also  to 
Cornelius.  But  he,  Avho  had  a  work  to  do  in  Joppa  and  no 
special   occasion   then   to   fast,  is  not,  hke  Cornelius,  adding 

1  In  St  Liike  vTrspaov,  called  in  the  Old  Testament  rr-'J ;  see  especially 
2  Kings  iv.  10. 


64   TO  ST  PETER  IN  THE  TRANCE  UPON  THE  HOUSETOP. 

fasting  to  prayer.  As  was  quite  possible  to  the  bodily  infirmity 
even  of  an  Apostle,  lie  became  hungiy  in  his  prayer,  even  verij 
hungry: — this  probably  was  the  result  of  an  extraordinary  in- 
fluence preparing  him  for  the  vision,  the  symbolical  language  of 
which  connected  itself  with  his  hunger,  according  to  the  analogy 
of  such  revelations  generally.  St  Peter  would  not  be  altogether 
interrupted  in  his  intenser  and  deepening  devotion  by  taking 
the  mid-day  meal, — he  desired  only  a  slight  repast.^  While 
this  was  being  prepared  for  him  he  fell  into  a  trance ;  liter- 
ally, a  trance  fell  upon  him,  so  that  he  beheld  a  vision  and  heard 
a  voice.     After  a  full  meal  this  would  not  have  taken  place. 

From  the  heaven,  which  shines  upon  him  as  if  opened,  there 
descends  to  him  a  table  wondi'ously  spread  for  his  hunger :  a 
structure  or  vessel  of  a  peculiar  kind  and  amazing  greatness; 
as  it  were  a  great  sheet  bound  by  cords  at  the  fom"  corners,  and 
so  let  down  to  the  earth,  that  is,  above  the  roof,  and  immediately 
before  him.  In  it  he  beheld  not  merely  "  all  kinds  of,"  but  all 
beasts,^  that  is,  one  of  every  species,  clean  and  unclean  miited. 
The  entire  animal  world,  not  excluding  the  bh'ds  of  heaven,, 
great  and  small;  even  creeping  things — the  smaller  animals, 
and  not  "  edible  insects ! "  ^  The  names  of  the  three  main 
genera,  besides  the  bu'ds,  correspond  (though  not  literally)  to 
the  account  in  the  creation.  Gen.  i.  24,  where,  if  we  rightly 
understand  it,  there  can  nothing  be  as  yet  said  about  insects  or 
reptiles.  Well  may  St  Peter  have  contemplated  all  this  with 
profound  astonishment !  ^  But  scarcely  has  the  question  arisen 
— AVliat  is  this?  what  does  it  mean  to  me?  when  a  voice 
{^from  heaven,  as  ch.  xii.  9  adds,  after  ch.  x.  had  made  it  obvious) 
gives  him  an  answer  yet  more  strange  :  Rise,  Peter,  slay  and 
EAT !  After  the  manner  of  a  dream,  the  killing  and  eating  are 
combined  in  one;  and  there  is  no  distinction  expressed  as  to 
what  was  upon  the  immense  livingly-spread  table,  on  the  border 
of  which,  as  we  may  suppose  from  the  Apostle's  words,  only 
unclean  animals  were  to  be  seen. 

^  This  is  a  more  befitting  expression  than  Liither's  anhchscn^  for  y£i/o-«- 
odxi,  comp.  ch.  XX.  11. 

2  As  the  Article,  standing  alone  in  ch.  xi.,  still  more  expressly  shows. 

^  As  Ncauder  expresses  himself,  according  to  the  too  prevalent  misunder- 
standing, for  eo7rsr«,  Ileb.  "iJ^;^  — which  signifies  only  the  smaller  animals 
in  contradistinction  from  "'=*?  and  "-^. 

*  Ch.  xi.  6,  ccnviaas  x,xTiv6ovv. 


ACTS  X.  13-16  ;   XI.  7-10.  65 

We  pause  here  in  our  contemplation,  and  ask,  as  St  Peter  when 
come  to  himself  asked  in  doubt,  ver.  17,  with  hope  of  a  certain 
answer,  what  the  meaning  of  the  vision  was.  Indeed,  we  can- 
not miss  its  meaning  if  we  thoughtfully  consider  it.  We  have 
the  actual  solution  of  it  in  the  history  which  follows,  as  Avell  as 
in  the  decisive  word  of  St  Peter — God  hath  showed  me  that  no 
man  is  to  be  counted  common  or  mi  clean.  But  throuoh  what 
process  do  we  reach  that  conclusion,  since  we  cannot  at  once  say 
that  animals  signify  men  ?  First  of  all,  we  must  do  justice  to 
the  obvious  reference  to  the  Mosaic  laws  of  distinction  in  food. 
The  connection  is  plain ;  since  it  was  the  prohibition  to  eat 
unclean  animals  which  practically  constituted  the  most  rigorous 
wall  of  partition  between  the  Israelites  and  the  Gentiles — 
especially  at  this  time,  when  human  ordinances  had  rendered 
those  laws  still  more  stringent.  Because  the  ceremonially  strict 
Jew  might  not  eat  with  the  Gentile,  all  confidential  intercourse 
and  all  perfect  communion  generally  was  cut  off  by  this  pro- 
hibition of  table-fellowship ;  as  in  ch.  xi.  we  read  that  in  Jeru- 
salem the  whole  Jewish-Christian  community  made.it  an  objec- 
tion to  the  first  Apostle  "  that  he  had  eaten  with  them" — in 
comparison  of  which  the  preaching  and  baptizing  comes  not 
into  further  consideration !  .St  Peter  could  not  have  paused  in 
doubt  as  to  Avhether  the  Divine  declaration  expressed  the  aboli- 
tion of  this  Levitical  distinction  between  clean  and  unclean 
animals  as  to  killing  and  eating ;  this  vv^as  directly  declared,  and 
he  would  immediately  think  of  the  words  of  Jesus  in  ISIark  vii. 
15-23.  But  that  from  this  very  much  would  follow,  and  that 
the  vision  wovild  signify  much  more  than  this,  is  a  matter  which 
he  thoughtfully  ponders.  We  hold  to  his  own  expression  when 
all  was  made  plain  to  him — No  man  is  any  longer  unclean. 
As  in  visions,  and  the  symbolical  language  of  prophecy  generally, 
more  than  one  interpretation  is  commonly  involved,  the  animals 
are  here  at  the  same  time  used  figiu'atively  for  men,  and  the 
unclean  are  the  Gentiles,  whom  the  Jews  had  hitherto  so 
regarded.  We  know  that  the  Jewish  phraseology  already 
applied  the  names  of  unclean  beasts  to  those  who  ate  them 
(Matt.  XV.  26  ;  vii.  6).  Thus  the  entire  animal  world,  which  was 
here  sho^^^l  to  the  Apostle  in  its  manifold  variety  according  to 
the  original  creation,  and  in  which  there  was  to  be  no  longer  a 
distinction  of  clean  and  unclean,  is  the  race  of  mankind  upon 

£ 


G6   TO  ST  PETER  IN  THE  TRANCE  UPON  THE  HOUSETOP. 

earth  in  all  its  peoples  and  lands.  The  sheet  descends  from 
heaven  to  earth;  and  this  means,  according  to  the  place  and 
occasion  of  the  vision,  in  general — Here  heaven  and  earth  are 
concerned  in  common ;  it  is  a  matter  upon  earth,  which  has  been 
decided  in  heaven.  But  this  is  scarcely  the  whole  meaning,  for 
it  is  not  merely  the  voice  which  comes  from  heaven.  Are  not 
all  men  to  be  regarded  as  originally  coming  from  heaven  and 
having  sprung  frotn  God,  according  to  their  first  creation  ?  ^ 
Thus,  this  comes  first — All  men  upon  earth  (the  four  corners 
are  the  four  quarters  of  heaven)  are  still  of  Divine  origin 
(ch.  xvii.  28).  But  this  of  itself  must  not  be  pressed  fm'ther, 
since  they  have  become  universally  unclean  through  their  sin. 
Consequently,  we  must  advance  to  the  full  and  perfect  inter- 
pretation : — The  vessel  or  sheet  is  the  Church  of  the  Lord,  into 
which,  through  the  decree  and  gi'ace  of  Heaven,  are  to  be  re- 
ceived for  heaven  men  of  all  nations ;  because  grace  renews  and 
re-establishes  the  original  creation.  Both  the  heavenly  origin 
and  the  heavenly  renewal  of  mankind  are  embraced  in  one. 

And  now  for  the  hilling  and  eating  which  is  required  of  the 
Apostle.  It  is  scarcely  the  mere  intercourse  with  Gentiles  (eat- 
ing with  them,  the  unclean)  that  is  meant ;  for  that  the  symbolic 
figure  would  have  been  too  strangely  emphatic,  apart  from  the 
consideration  that  an  Apostle  would  not  have  to  do  ysA\\\  people 
hitherto  avoided,  except  for  the  accomplishment  of  his  vocation 
in  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel.  Rieger  says,  more  correctly: 
"  In  this  figm'e  the  futm'e  success  of  his  mission  was  set  before 
St  Peter ;  it  presented  to  his  hopes  the  wished-f or  satisfaction 
of  all  his  spu'itual  longings,  but  on  the  condition  of  his  resigna- 
tion and  denial  of  what  had  been  customary  and  pleasing  to  his 
own  natm'e.  He  must  submit  to  God's  judgment  and  the  elec- 
tion of  grace  ;  for  He  declares  what  is  acceptable  and  pure  in 
His  sight,  and  to  His  judgment  all  the  repulsions  of  om*  own 
nature  and  fleshly  mind  must  bow  down."  This  sets  us  at  least 
upon  the  right  track.  We  need  not  think  here  of  any  sacrificial 
slaying  and  priestly  sei'vice  (as  Rom.  xv.  16);^  for  it  is  very 
obvious  that  St  Peter  feels,  besides  his  bochly  hunger,  anotlier 
hunger  of  the  spirit,  to  which  the  s;yTnbolical  vision  responds. 
Wliat  can  we  suppose  him  to  have  so  earnestly  prat/efl!  for  but 

^  Are  acceptable^  as  oextoV,  ver.  35,  means. 

2  The  dlaou  Tvith  (poiyi  stands  simply  for  slaying. 


ACTS  X.  13-lG;  XI.  7-10.  67 

the  success  of  his  office,  and  his  soul's  satisfaction  in  its  success 
— the  spread  of  the  Gospel  of  grace?  The  many  who  had 
believed  in  Joppa  had  not  satisfied  that  desire ;  while  he  tarries 
with  them,  his  thoughts  are  away  in  his  missionary  journeyings, 
and  probably  far  beyond  the  Jewish  land.  But  because  he 
supposes  that  the  Gentiles  could  be  accepted  only  on  the  hard 
and  seldom-accepted  condition  of  circumcision  and  subjection  to 
the  whole  law,  he  is  oppressed  and  disquieted.  Thus  his  secret 
conflict  in  prayer  ha^l  prepared  him,  more  than  he  knew,  for 
the  heavenly  revelation  which  now  grants  his  desires: — Eise, 
Peter,  and  satisfy  thine  hunger  for  the  salvation  of  all  men 
under  heaven  !     (Ch.  iv.  12.) 

But  he  does  not  on  the  instant  know  and  understand 
this.  Conscientious  eVen  in  the  trance,  in  the  waking  dream, 
he  draws  back  with  distaste  and  dread  from  the  unclean  food, 
even  as  Saul  would  earlier  have  done.  No  (Kterally,  hy  no 
meoMS,  assuredly  not),  0  Lord !  This  is  his  first  word  to  the 
imknoAvn  Speaker — the  "  Lord  "  EQmself  it  may  be,  tempting 
him.  The  intenser  assui*ance,  I  have  never  eaten  anything 
either  common  or  imclean !  he  quotes  probably  by  memory 
from  the  words  of  Ezekiel  the  prophet;  see  ch.  iv.  14. 
But  hereupon  the  voice  grows  more  strong  in  its  rebulce 
of  that  which  was  not  right  in  his  supposed  vindication  of 
perfect  right.  It  proceeds  to  utter  words  which  already  pass 
over  into  the  interpretation  of  the  mystery — What  God  hath 

CLEANSED,  THAT    MAKE    (call,    esteem)     THOU    NOT    COMMON ! 

It  is  not  now  sla}ang  and  eating  that  is  spoken  of ;  for  that  only 
had  an  ulterior  meaning.  What  God  hath  cleansed — and  it 
Avas  this  "  what "  that  St  Peter  afterwards  so  deeply  pondered. 
First,  as  still  keeping  to  the  symbol :  "  That  which  God,  by 
sending  down  for  thee  from  heaven  and  commandino;  thee  to 
eat,  has  declared  clean,  that  shouldst  thou  not  (contradictory 
child  of  man)  any  longer  term  unclean,  and  desecrate  again  by 
treating  it  as  such  !"  But  this  has  literally  another  meaning,  at 
the  same  time,  for  the  interpretation.  All  is  unclean  until  God 
cleanses  it ;  this  is  indeed  true,  but  God  can  still  maintain  His 
right.  The  natural,  animal  men  are  not  only  likened  to 
brute  beasts,  made  to  be  taken  and  destroyed  (2  Pet.  ii.  12), 
but  they  are  originally  unclean,  like  all  animal  food  before  the 
Flood.     In  His  permission  to  Noah,  God  cleansed  all  animals 


08   TO  ST  PETER  IN  THE  TRA^fCE  UPON  THE  HOUSETOP. 

for  tlie  food  of  man  (by  the  side  of  the  abiding  distinction  for 
the  sacrifice  to  God,  Gen.  vii.  2)^in  the  prohibition  by  Moses 
certain  animals  were  again  made  common  by  God — but  now  in 
the  commandment  to  St  Peter  all  is  again  called  clean.  In  the 
covenant  of  Noah  the  whole  human  race  was  accepted,  before 
the  Gentiles  were  by  the  Jewish  law  (transitorily)  cast  out; 
and  now  in  baptism  the  covenant  of  grace  is  established  again 
with  all  flesh  (1  Pet.  iii.  21).  Through  Christ,  tlu'ough  its 
union  with  His  heaven  descending  in  Christ,  God  has  actually 
cleansed  entire  humanity :  here  there  is  not  merely  a  return  to 
a  former  covenant  of  grace  ;  but,  going  still  further  back,  there 
is  the  restoration  of  all  creatm'es  to  their  first  and  pure  creation. 
Thus,  "whom  God  hath  accepted,  and  will  go  on  to  accept  in  grace, 
let  no  man  despise,  and  cast  him  out  as  nevertheless  unclean!" 
This  most  emphatic  ivarning  is  here  uttered  for  the  whole 
Church  of  the  Jews  believing  in  Christ,  to  whom  St  Peter  must 
dehver  it ;  just  as  St  Paul  received  the  word  for  the  Jews  who 
persecuted  Christ — Wliy  persecutest  thou  Me?  In  the  most 
immediate  application,  Cornelius  himself  is  seen  to  be  cleansed 
by  preparatory  grace  unto  the  fear  of  God  and  the  working  of 
righteousness ;  and  to  this  first  application  St  Peter  afterwards 
refers  in  ver.  35,  though  he  had  already,  ver.  28,  uttered  its 
most  full  interpretation — No  man  is  henceforth  unclean  either 
to  God  or  to  us,  not  even  the  most  outcast  heathen.  He  sub- 
sequently entered  more  deeply  into  the  profoundest  meaning 
of  the  fulfilment  of  the  word,  in  ch.  xv.  9 — God  hath  put  no 
difference  between  us  and  them,  purifying  their  hearts  by  faith. 
Wliile  Peter  at  first  keeps  silence,  in  astonishment  and 
thought,  he  hears  once  more,  Rise,  Peter,  slay  and  eat  ! 
Whether  he  actually  renews  his  objection,  and  thus  the  whole 
happened  thrice ;  or,  whether  only  the  repeated  command  to  eat 
is  to  be  reckoned  as  the  third  voice — is  open  to  discussion. 
According  to  the  simple  letter,  we  should  suppose  that,  after  the 
fashion  of  a  dream,  the  lohole  three  times  occurred,  in  order  that 
it  might  be  confirmed  and  rendered  decisive  to  him  :  comp. 
Gen.  xli.  32.  Whether  the  triple  number  is  to  be  referred  to 
the  three  men,  ver.  19  (as  to  many  the  connection,  ch.  xi.  10, 11, 
seems  to  intimate),  we  doubt ;  nothing  would  be  gamed  by  it, 
for  there  was  no  particular  message  to  be  given  to  each  of  the 
three.     That,  finally,  the  vessel  is  received  up  again  into  heaven, 


ACTS  XVIII.  9,  10.  69 

does  not  (as  has  been  supposed)  introduce  the  other  side  of  the 
interpretation  — "That  which  came  from  heaven  is  taken  vipand 
acknowledged  by  heaven"  (this  acknowledgment  was  contained 
in  the  vision  itself)  ;  but  it  is  only  the  appropriate  end  by  which 
the  whole  is  stamped  as  a  teaching  and  revealing  vision — "Now 
return  to  thyself,  and  ponder  what  this  may  mean  !"  God's 
further  guidance  in  facts,  and  our  own  subsequent  reflection  in 
consequence,  opens  up  to  us  afterwards  the  meaning  of  His 
revelations.  St  Peter,  who  was  too  deeply  entangled  with  the 
Jewish  law,  required  the  new  and  direct  teaching  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  to  deliver  him ;  but  we  see  that  the  method  taken  with 
him  was  to  make  him  first  ponder  and  doid)t  about  his  former 
prejudices,  before  the  perfect  will  of  God  was  disclosed  to  him. 
And  thus,  notwithstanding  the  striking  difference  in  the  Lord's 
dealings  with  St  Paul  and  St  Peter,  we  see  the  same  funda- 
mental law  in  operation :  the  miracle  leaves  something  still  in 
the  revelation  for  man's  o^vn  appropriation  in  the  natural  way ; 
be  it  more  or  less,  there  is  ever  the  personal  and  voluntary  ap- 
propriation. 

VI. 

TO  -ST  PAUL  IN  COEINTH. 

(Acts  xviii.  9,  10.) 

If  we  would  not,  with  alas !  most  expositors,  hurry  over  these 
simple  and  yet  sublime  words  to  St  Paul,  so  specially  signifi- 
cant as  they  are,  we  must  assist  oiu:  living  apprehension  of  the 
wdiole  by  observing  the  entire  position  and  state  of  mind  in 
which  these  words  of  the  Lord  found  him.  He  had  been  sum- 
moned, by  the  visit  of  the  man  from  IMacedonia,  ch.  xvi.  9, 
to  Europe.  He  had  baptized  the  first-fruits  of  European 
Clu'istendom,  and  laid  the  foundation  of  what  we  must  regard 
as  the  most  flom-ishing  and  interesting  of  the  apostolical 
churches.  Driven  from  Thessalonica  and  Beroea,  after  brief 
labours,  through  the  fury  of  the  Jcavs,  He  uttered  a  mighty 
and  most  public  testimony  in  Athens — being  for  a  considerable 
space  without  his  companions — but  with  little  success  among 
its  proud  disputants  and  babblers.  From  Athens  he  proceeded 
to    Corinth.     Athens  aimed  rather  to   represent   the  past  of 


70  TO  ST  PAUL  IN  CORINTH. 

Greece,  now  degraded  from  its  glory,  and  prostrate  under  the 
Koman  power ;  but  Corinth  was  content  to  be  the  capital  of 
Eoman  Greece,  the  residence  of  the  ruling  Proconsul  of  Achaia. 
While  in  Athens  what  was  left  of  Greek  science  and  wisdom 
still  sought  to  maintain  its  pre-eminence,  Corinth  had  aban- 
doned itself  to  all  the  vanity  and  debauchery  of  sensual  life. 
After  its  sack  by  Mimimius,  it  had  been  re-estabhshed  in  all 
its  former  glory,  as  the  so-called  "  ornament  of  Greece."  Nor 
Avas  she  wanting  in  art  and  science,  especially  in  that  of  rhe- 
toric, as  referred  to  in  the  Epistles  to  the  church  which  after- 
wards arose  in  her ;  but  the  predominant  characteristics  of  the 
city,  as  she  was  situated  on  the  isthmus  with  two  harbom-s, 
were  commerce,  riches,  magnificence,  wantonness,  debaucherj'. 
Not  the  goddess  of  Wisdom,  as  in  Athens,  but  Aprodite,  the 
goddess  of  carnal  lust  (at  least,  as  she  had  now  become),  had 
the  most  celebrated  temple ;  statues  were  erected  to  emment 
prostitutes,  as  to  Lais ;  and  the  Greek  phrase,  "  to  live  in 
Cormtliian  fasldon,^  was  expressive  of  all  extravagance  of  de- 
bauchery and  riot. 

This  was  the  place  to  which  St  Paul  came  from  Athens,  and 
where  at  first  he  consorted,  as  a  tentmaker,  with  a  Christian 
Jew.  Pie  did  not  delay,  indeed,  to  open  his  mouth  on  the  Sab- 
baths to  the  Jews  in  the  Jewish  s}Tiagogues ;  but  this  seems,  as 
in  the  case  of  the  discourse  adapted  to  the  Greeks  in  Athens, 
to  have  borne  the  character  rather  of  a  preparatory,  calm  ex- 
position of  Scripture,  which  might  lead  the  way  to  the  true 
]\Iessiah.  It  was  not  until  his  companions,  Silas  and  Timothy, 
who  had  been  left  behind,  had  retimied  to  him  by  his  own  de- 
su'e  (ch.  xvii.  14,'  15)  from  Macedonia,  that  he  was  pressed  in 
spirit — urged  hy  the  word,  as  the  right  reading  has  it — to 
testify  to  the  Jews  concerning  the  person  of  Jesus,  that  He 
was  the  promised  Christ.  It  is  obvious,  according  to  the 
account  of  St  Luke,  that  this  retiu'n  of  his  companions,  and 
the  intelligence  which  they  brought  of  the  progress  of  the  Gos- 
pel, stood  in  the  connection  of  a  cause  with  the  stronger  zeal 
of  St  Paul ;  and  this  is  directly  stated  also  in  the  Epistle  which 
was  wiitten  from  here  (1  Thess.  iii.  6-8).^     But  we  are  not  on 

^  Thus  the  exposition  is  incorrect,  Avhich  is  accepted  by  AJford  :  When 
these  came,  tJiey  found  Mm  (more  than  before)  earnest  and  vehement  in 
preaching. 


ACTS  XYIII.  9,  10.  71 

that  account  to  understand  the  "  word,"  as  many  do,  of  the 
narrative  of  these  friends ;  for  such  a  meaning  the  expression 
"  the  word"  would  be  quite  imusual :  it  would  have  required, 
at  least,  "by  their  word."^  But  we  must  understand  the  j^rgss- 
ing,  just  as  in  2  Cor.  v.  14 ;  the  Hvino;,  indwelling  word  of 
God  inwardly  m'ges  the  Apostle  to  utter  all  its  fulness  of  exhor- 
tation and  promise.  It  is  a  very  pregnant'  form  of  speech, 
which  may  be  interpreted  by  Jer.  xx.  8,  9. 

This  pressure  and  urgency  of  zeal  is  quite  consistent  (as 
in  the  Prophets,  it  is  the  overcome  opposite)  with  a  certain 
weakness,  with  a  degTee  of  fearfulness  and  anxiety,  such  as  the 
Apostle,  dispirited  by  want  of  success  in  Athens,  had  brought 
to  Corinth,  1  Cor.  ii.  3.  After  he  had  in  Athens,  and  at  first 
also  in  Corinth,  adopted  a  style  of  discourse  which  simply 
paved  the  way  for  conviction,  by  entering  into  the  thoughts 
and  subjects  which  he  found  around  him,  he  now  begins,  simply 
and  emphatically,  to  know  and  to  preach  only  Jesus  Christ  the  * 
Crucified,  with  no  other  demonstration  than  that  of  the  Spirit, 
and  of  the  power  which  was  in  his  own  weakness.  This  soon 
brings  men  to  decision.  The  Jews  contradict  and  blaspheme ; 
so  that  he  shakes  the  dust  from  his  feet  and  his  garments,  and 
turns,  pm'e  from  the  guilt  of  their  blood,  to  the  Gentiles.  Hard 
by  the  s^iiagogue,  for  a  strong  standing  testimony,  and,  as  it 
were,  still  to  attract  the  Jews,^  he  set  up  his  school  of  instruc- 
tion ;  the  chief  ruler  of  the  synagogue  (whom,  as  an  exception, 
the  Apostle  himself  baptized,  1  Cor.  i.  14),  with  many  other 
Corintliians,  believed  and  were  baptized. 

This  is  the  Apostle's  position  and  tone  of  mind,  when  an- 
other direct  word  of  his  Lord  comes  to  him.  It  is  indeed 
through  a  vision  of  the  night  (as  in  ch.  xvi.  9),  yet  inmiediately 
in  His  own  person,  that  Jesus  addresses  the  man  who  was 
elected  to  this  pre-eminent  distmction  of  nearer  intercom'se. 
Afterwards  in  Jerusalem,  ph.  xxiii.  11,  it  was  once  more  so ; 
and,  finally,  an  angel  was  sent  to  Paul,  as  to  others.  That 
which  in  the  beginning,  when  the  Apostles  were  in  prison, 
was  the  office  of  an  angel — the  comforting  encoiu'agement  to 
speak  boldly  the  words  of  life  (ch.  v.  20) — the  Lord  here 

^  Even  Menken  :  "  How  m-sngorating  -was  the  influence  of  his  friends' 
words !" 

2  Not  so  entirely  separated  as  afterwards  in  Ephesus,  ch.  xis.  9. 


72  TO  ST  PAUL  IX  COEINTH. 

assumes  for  Himself :  Fear  not,  but  speak  and  keep  not 
SILENCE  !  Still  coming  first  the  same  word  of  encouraging 
grace — so  needful  to  us  poor  children  of  men — which  runs 
through  the  whole  of  Scripture  from  beginning  to  end,  Fear 
not !  Simon  Peter  heard  it  from  the  lips  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
when  his  call  to  be  a  fisher  of  men  was  repeated,  Luke  v.  10. 
Abraham  received  it  first  in  the  Old  Testament,  Gen.  xv.  1  — 
after  a  victory,  too,  like  St  Paul  here ;  for  father  Adam  first 
of  all  confessed  in  behalf  of  us  all — I  was  afraid  !  The  Lord 
and  His  angels  often  say  it  in  the  Old  Testament ;  the  New 
begins  "v\ath  it  to  Zacharias,  Mary,  Joseph,  the  shepherds. 
The  Lord  often  utters  it  during  His  eai'thly  life,  down  to 
John  xiv.  1  :  the  angels  at  the  sepulchre  of  the  risen  Jesus 
give  it  new  strength.  The  ascended  and  glorified  Redeemer 
insjju'es  vigoiu'  into  the  soul  of  St  John  at  Patmos  by  the 
same  word.  Fear  not  !  Rev.  i.  17.  How  needful  is  this  word 
to  His  disciples  everywhere  and  in  all  ages ;  and  how  ready  He 
ever  is  to  utter  it  to  them  !  It  is  the  abiding  word  of  the 
Divine  majesty  and  mercy  for  human  poverty,  weakness,  and 
guilt.  St  Paul  in  Corinth  needed  it  pre-eminently,  as  the  Lord 
well  knew.  Without  were  fightings,  Avithin  were  fears — this 
was  the  ordinary  condition  of  the  Lord's  ambassadors  in  the 
world :  2  Cor.  vii.  5 ;  John  xvi.  33.  But  they  must  continually 
take  fresh  com-age  for  then*  duty,  that  they  may  speak  the 
word  without  fear  (2  Tim.  iv.  2).  "  But  speah,  teach  and 
preach,  testify  and  exhort  with  confidence,  with  more  and  more 
confidence,  and  keep  not  silence!"  is  the  Lord's  word  to  St 
Paul.  This  latter  is  not  added  merely  as  the  emphatic  close  of 
the  solemn  saying,  or  as  an  expressive  repetition ;  but  it  has 
the  meaning  of  the  Old  Testament  phrase,  as  in  Isa.  Iviii.  1 ; 
Ixii.  1,  6.  And  it  is  to  be  observed,  further,  that  the  Lord 
here  (as  in  ch.  xxiii.  11)  graciously  acknowledges  and  confirms 
St  Paul's  former  witness  in  Corinth;  it  is  as  if  He  said  with 
commendation — "  Wliat  thou  hast  already  spoken  has  been 
well  spoken  ;  go  on  confident!}',  and  change  not !" 

What,  then,  could  cause  the  Apostle  to  err,  and  make  him 
fear  ?  The  glance  at  opposition  and  the  host  of  persecutors  ! 
Therefore  follows,  as  the  first  jPor  of  reason  for  not  fearing,  an 
assurance  of  help ;  and  then  a  second  Fo7'  of  reason  for  speak- 
ing boldly — a  positive  promise  of  great  success.     For  I  am 


ACTS  XVIII.  9,  10.  73 

WITH  THEE,  AND  NO  MJiN  SHALL  SET  UPON  THEE  TO  HURT 
THEE,  or  to  indict  evil  upon  thee.  Sublime  repetition  of  the 
farewell  left  in  Matt.  xx\T[ii.  20,  which  yet  was  no  farewell ! 
Majestic  words,  in  the  manner  of  the  Most  High  God,  who  has 
said  from  the  beginning  so  many  times,  "/am  with  thee — / 
am  with  you!"  Such  promises  did  not  insure  the  Apostles 
generally  against  the  suffering  of  many  evils,  and  death  itself 
(John  x\-i.  2) — in  the  case  of  Paul  the  keenest  persecution, 
even  unto  stoning,  was  not  excluded ;  but  the  word  has  Jiei^e  a 
more  specific  meaning  for  his  testimony  in  Corinth,  and  gives  a 
pledge :  "  jSTo  harm  shall  befall  thee,  in  life  and  person,  heo^e ; 
no  hand  shall  be  laid  upon  thee" — as  the  original  rmis.  And 
we  read  the  fidfilment.  The  mild  Proconsul  Gallio  (brother  of 
the  philosopher  Seneca)  calmed  the  people,  just  as  the  towTi- 
clerk  did  afterguards  in  Ephesus ;  but  not  as  the  magistracy  in 
Philippi,  who  yielded  to  the  clamoiu's  of  the  mob  of  his  ene- 
mies. Sosthenes  is  beaten  (ver.  17) — but  Paul  goes  free,  and 
remains  as  long  as  he  will ;  preaching  unhindered  and  unhm't 
for  eighteen  months  in  this  city !  All  this  is  under  the  control 
of  the  Lord ;  He  suffers  to  set  upon,  or  restrains  from  setting 
upon.  His  followers  as  He  will.  This  is  the  great  consolation 
even  in  the  midst  of  the  evil  which  is  permitted. 

Still  more.  Not  only  should  no  man  hm*t  him,  which  to  the 
xipostle  was  tlie  lesser  thing,  but  the  true  and  essential  en- 
couragement is  given  to  save  him  from  all  despondency — Thou 
shalt  have  much  fruit  with  thy  protected  testimony.  For  I 
HAVE  MUCH  (countless)  PEOPLE  IN  THIS  CITY.  Concerning 
Jerusalem  the  Lord  said — Go  hence,  for  they  will  not  receive 
thy  testimony  concerning  Mel  But  concerning  this  city  He 
saith,  I  have  much  people  in  it — and  that  city  is  Corinth !  We 
must  consider  a  while  what  kind  of  a  city  Corinth  was,  to 
discern  all  the  significance  of  these  words.  This  city — the 
Lord  does  not  so  speak  as  if  He  merely  would  not  mention 
the  name,  but  for  the  sake  of  emphasis — this  city,  not  only 
heathenish,  but  sunk  deeper  than  others  into  the  deepest 
abominations  of  heathenism,  this  basest  and  most  notorious  city 
of  all  that  proudly  bear  the  name  in  this  dark  world.  He  who 
in  His  humble  life  on  earth  limited  Himself,  for  Israel's  sake, 
to  one  small  corner  of  the  earth,  and  who  had  never  seen  any 
fragment  of  the  vTetched  gloiy  of  Greece  and  Eome, — He, 


74  TO  PAUL  IJJ  COEINTH. 

the  same  Jesus,  knows  all  things,  and  is  e^^ery^vhere  present 
in  His  energy.  Of  Him  it  is  true,  that  the  eyes  of  the  Lord 
run  to  and  fro  throughout  tlie  whole  earth,  and  through  all 
cities — not  only  to  show  Himself  strong  in  tlie  behalf  of  them 
whose  heart  is  perfect  towards  Him  (2  Chron.  xvi.  9),  but  also 
that  He  may  seek  out  and  visit  in  His  grace,  for  their  salvation, 
all  who  in  any  degree  turn  their  hearts  towards  Him,  and, 
whether  consciously  or  unconsciously,  are  prepared  to  receive 
Him.  He  who  once  on  His  way  to  the  death  of  the  Good 
Shepherd  prophetically  spoke,  in  His  authority  original  and  to 
be  resumed,  of  the  other  sheep  not  of  this  fold — now  terms  from 
heaven  "  the  children  of  God  scattered  abroad "  (John  xi.  52), 
in  the  blasphemous  city  of  Corinth,  a  people  which  already  be- 
longed to  Himself ;  because  they  were  to  be  collected  together 
and  united  with  His  one  great  people,  which  has  now  taken  the 
place  of  the  ancient  revolted  people  of  God. 

This  meant  for  Paul,  sent  to  the  people  and  to  the  Gentiles 
— "Behold,  if  thou  must  go  from  the  Jews — shaking  the  dust 
from  thy  feet,  and  leaving  their  blood  upon  their  own  head — 
the  Gentiles,  to  whom  thou  hast  tm-ned,  will  give  both  to  Me 
and  thee  rich  compensation.  Many  Corinthians  have  believed, 
many  more  will  believe ;  so  that  it  shall  become  a  gi'eat  Church  : 
I  shall  have  much  people  in  this  city."  This  says  to  all  His  mes- 
sengers and  disciples  everyAvhere,  and  in  all  circumstances — 
"  Be  comforted :  I  have  abeady  those  who  shall  be  Mine  owai ;  I 
Jvnow  and  guard,  I  collect  and  feed,  as  the  Great  Shepherd,  all 
who  will  believe  on  Me  ! "  But  it  also  contains  its  consolatoiy 
warning  against  precipitate  judgment  upon  the  iniin  of  the 
w'orld.  Many  a  believing  Christian  might  have  beheld  repro- 
bate Corinth  with  eyes  very  different  from  the  Lord's,  and  might 
have  thought  that  all  the  Apostle's  zeal,  labour,  and  patience 
were  expended  in  vain — but  it  was  not  as  man's  estimate  might 
think:  the  Lord  looketh  at  the  hearts  of  men.  The  man  of 
Macedonia  had  not  called  the  Apostle  over  to  Macedonia  alone. 
In  all  Achaia,  and  in  regions  beyond,  souls  were  waiting  for 
help.  Athens  had  for  the  present  ,proudly  i-ejected  the  Gospel 
— but  the  equally  proud  and  still  more  trifling  Corinth  concealed 
within  herself  a  gi'eat  multitude  of  people  of  the  Crucified,  soon 
to  be  revealed ;  for  open  and  abandoned  sinners  are  nearer  to 
grace  than  the  darkly  Avise  aiid  prudent.     A  foolish  sermon  of 


ACTS  3:x:iii.  11.  75 

the  tentmaker — a  man  of  the  despised  Jewish  people,  and  by, 
them  cast  out  and  persecuted — finds  in  this  wicked  city  many 
behevers.  And  so  the  great  Chui'ch  still,  having  to  wage  in- 
cessant war  with  surromiding  impmities  and  corruptions,  which 
invade  her  and  more  or  less  cling  to  herself,  is  yet  a  Chm*ch  of 
the  Lord,  concerning  which  and  te  which  the  Apostle  may  utter 
the  words  with  which  he  begins  his  first  Epistle,  1  Cor.  i.  2-9. 
Because  among  them  the  poAver  of  the  Sphit  had  superabun- 
dantly demonstrated  itself,  he  can  call  this  Chiu'ch  pre-emi- 
nently the  seal  of  his  Apostleship  (1  Cor.  ix  2) — if  not,  like 
that  of  the  Philippians,  his  joy  and  his  crown.  How  many 
times  did  this  Avord  of  his  Lord  concerning  the  much  people  in 
this  city  encom'age  and  animate  him  in  his  zeal  for  the  betrothed 
of  Christ,  that  it  might  be  presented  to  Him  as  a  chaste  virgin ! 
(2  Cor.  xi.  2.)  For  the  great  prophecy  and  assm*ance  points 
onwards,  beyond  all  conflict  and  pei-version,  to  the  glorious  con- 
smnmation — I  have  already  much  people. 


VII. 

TO  ST  PAUL  IN  BONDS  AT  JEEUSALEM. 

(Acts  xxiii.  11.) 

Again  a  fruitful  period  of  the  Apostle's  activity ; — according  to 
the  most  probable  reckoning,  a  space  of  about  six  years  since 
the  arrival  in  Corinth  lies  behind  us.  After  a  short  abode  in 
Ephesus,  he  w^ent  up  at  Pentecost  to  greet  the  ISIother-Church 
in  Jerusalem;^  he  then  tamed  a  while  in  Antioch  (we  observe 
that  he  retains  his  connection  with  the  chief  cities) ;  he  then 
went  through  Galatia  and  Phrygia ;  and  has  now  preached  for 
two  years  in  Ephesus,  with  great  success,  against  all  kinds  of 
idolatry  and  necromancy.  In  the  ancient  metropohs  of  all  the 
black  arts  he  demonstrates  the  mioht  of  the  name  of  Jesus, 

1  As  cb.  xviii.  22  must  be  understood  in  its  "  going  up  "  and  "  saluting 
the  Church  " — this  last  always  referring  pre-eminently  to  Jerusalem.  This 
Ls  a  fourth  journey  to  Jerusalem ;  though  only  a  short  greeting  in  the  calm 
circle  of  the  brethren.  Now  it  is  Pentecost  instead  of  Easter :  comp.  again 
ch.  XX.  16. 


76         TO  ST  PAUL  IX  BONDS  AT  JERUSALEM. 

with  accompaniment  of  mighty  miracles.     Further,  travelling 
through  Macedonia  and  Achaia,  the  Apostle,  urged  in  spirit, 
contemplated  Jerusalem,  and  even  already  Rome,  as  the  goal  of 
his  journey.     In  the  way,  hastening  to  Pentecost,  he  takes  his 
farewell  in  IMiletus  of  the  elders  of  Ephesus,  for  he  Icnows  that 
he  Avill  not  come  again  to  them.     Now  he  is  in  Jerusalem ;  holds 
friendly  colloquy  with  St  James  and  the  elders;  and,  yielding 
to  counsel,  allays  the  mistrust  of  the  bigoted  Jewish  Christians 
by  a  legal  compliance  in  the  temple.     But  this  very  circum- 
stance excites,  through  a  probably  wilful  misunderstanding,  the 
wrath  of  the  Jews :  he  is  seized  in  the  insurrection ;  and  thus 
— according  to  his  desire,  though  not  in  the  way  that  he  thought 
— an  opportunity  is  given  him  for  a  final  testimony  to  IsrJiel  in 
the  metropolis.     It  is  the  last  most  important  condescension  of 
the  abounding  grace  of  the  Lord,  which  appeals  yet  once  more 
to  this  hardened  and  rejected  Jerusalem.      How  the  Apostle 
narrated  his  history  and  bore  his  testimony  before  the  people, 
we  have  already  seen.     When  he  came  to  the  word  concerning 
his  being  sent  to  the  Gentiles,  all  hearing  was  over ;  their  rage 
burst  forth ;  and  only  the  Roman  power  could  rescue  him  from 
the  Avi'ath  of  the  Jews — bound  still,  hoAvever,  because  some 
kind  of  guilt  seemed  to  fasten  upon  him.     The  next  day  he  is 
brought  before  the  supreme  council  in  Jerusalem ;  and  for  the 
first  time,  though  he  has  been  in  Jerusalem  fom'  times  before. 
And  it  proceeds  as  if  the  council  must  give  an  account  of  the 
insurrection  against  this  man,  rather  than  as  if  he  had  to  make 
his  defence.     They  had  this  notorious  and  most  hateful  leader 
of  the  sect  of  the  Nazarenes,  this  man  who  was  once  their  Saul, 
before  them,_and  under  the  protection  of  the  Romans !     After 
the  Apostle,  in  consequence  of  their  embarrassment,  had  begun 
the  discourse ;    after   he   had  reproved  in  the  high  j^riest  the 
mirighteous  blow,  and  had  seemingly  retracted  in  keen  and 
severe  irony  his  reproof ;  after  he  had,  with  great  prudence  and 
in  perfect  consistency  with  truth,  avowed  himself  to  belong  to 
the  Pharisaic  orthodox  .Judaism,  which  held  to  the  hope  of  a 
resurrection, — there  was  a  disgraceful  division  and  wild  uproar 
in  the  council  itself,  so  that  the  Roman  captain  had  to  rescue 
him  from  the  hands  of  these  most  honourable  men  to-day,  as 
yesterday  from  the  rabble. 

This  was  the  day,  on  the  nicjht  following  which  (as  it  runs 


ACTS  XXIII.  11.  77 

literally)  tlie  Lord  came  to  liim  once  more  with  a  personal 
address.  Tins  was  certainly  an  important  crisis  in  tlie  progi'ess 
of  the  kingdom  of  God.  The  last  fruitless  testimony  in  Jeru- 
salem before  the  people  and  the  comicil,  had  resulted  only  in 
public  exasperation,  in  the  secret  increase  of  their  hardening, 
and  in  the  more  grievous  exhibition  of  the  mirighteousness 
which  restrained  the  truth ;  but  connected  with  this  was  the 
delivering  up  of  the  greatest  witness  of  the  Gospel  to  the 
authority  of  Rome,  which  for  a  while  shows  itself  more  just  than 
Pilate  formerly  was,  who  surrendered  all  to  the  clamom-s  of  the 
people  (ch.  xxv.  16 ;  xxvi.  31,  32).  After  the  tumult,  worse 
now  on  the  part  of  the  Jews,  there  is  miserable  disorder  and 
chssolution  in  the  council  itself ;  on  the  other  hand,  a  Roman 
warrant  interferes  for  the  Apostle's  full  protection.  We  would 
not  push  the  significance  of  these  occm-rences  so  far  as  Baum- 
garten  does,  who  regards  them  as  marking  a  great  historical 
change  in  the  relations  of  Jews  and  Gentiles;  to  wit,  that 
Israel  was  from  this  time  dismissed  (saving  his  future),  and 
that  a  Gentile  mission,  a  Gentile  Apostolate,  and  a  Gentile 
Christendom,  was  for  a  long  period  as  it  were  exclusively  to 
enter  in.^  Yet  they  do  indicate  a  tm^ning-point,  at  which  it 
was  most  appropriate  that  the  Lord's  specific  encoui*agement 
should  be  given  to  St  Paul,  so  strangely  placed  as  he  now  was 
between  the  two  powers  of  the  world. 

Thus,  in  the  night  after  this  great  day,  in  which  the  Apostle 
had  done  what  his  Lord  had  commanded  him  to  do  before  the 
supreme  court  of  his  people,  still  dear  to  him  in  their  bhndness, 
had  rebidved  the  "whited  wall"  with  prophecy  of  judgment, 
and  then  in  this  last  term  of  the  Lord's  forbearance  conceded 
to  the  people  then'  "  high  priest,"  and  made  a  final  attempt  to  lay 
hold  on  what  was  still  good  among  them  by  appealing  to  the 
"  Pharisees  "  in  this  half-heretic  council  to  defend  his  doctrine 
of  the  resurrection, — in  this  night,  when  all  the  mighty  feelings 
and  thoughts  of  the  Apostle's  human  soul  were  in  strong  agita- 
tion, concmTently  with  and  amid  the  inspirations  of  the  Spirit, 
and  he  was  doubtless  severely  tried  by  a  certain  anxiety  as  to 
the  issue  of  his  complicated  position — the  Lord  stood  once  more 

^  For,  even  at  the  end  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  in  Rome,  St  Paul  be- 
gins again  with  the  Jews,  with  his  acknowledgment  of  the  hope  of  Israel ; 
and  it  was  to  the  Romans  he  wrote  that  Israel  should  never  be  given  up  I 


78  TO  ST  TAUL  IN  BONDS  AT  JERUSALEM. 

by  Mm,  to  strengthen  him  by  His  recognition  and  promise. 
The  brief  word  is  not  expressly  connected  with  any  mention 
either  of  trance  or  vision ;  only  the  night  gives  its  hint  of  a 
dream  or  vision.  But  the  Lord's  "  standing  by  him  "  ^  assures 
us  of  an  actual  manifestation,  in  some  manner  visible  and 
audible,  as  in  cli.  xxii.  17,  18.  Therefore  we  ought  not  and 
will  not,  like  the  bulk  of  expositors,  rapidly  pass  over  these 
words  of  the  Lord  Jesus  spoken  out  of  heaven,  but  give  them 
their  especial  prominence  in  oiu'  exposition. 

Be  of  good  COURAGE,  Paul  !  For  as  thou  hast  testi- 
fied OF  Me  in  Jerusalem,  so  must  thou  also  bear  witness 
IN  Rome.  The  manner  and  substance  of  these  sayings  from 
heaven,  after  the  first  at  Damascus  which  had  its  own  pecu- 
liarity, are  much  the  same  throughout :  The  ground  of  the 
command  or  encouragement  is  given  by  For,  the  great  subject 
is  ever  the  testimony,  the  com'se  appointed  for  it  is  the  same, 
and  always  the  majestic  /,  of  Me  !  There  is  something  peculiar 
here  in  the  mentioning  by  name,  the  first  time  since  Damascus, 
and  that  tlie  now  prominent  name  of  Paul.  The  unfavourable 
manuscript  criticism  will  not  persuade  us  to  strike  out  the 
ajjpellation ;  the  naked  "  Be  of  good  courage,"  so  curt  in  the 
original  Greek,  does  not  seem  to  us  enough.^  This  appeal  was 
always  connected  with  something  else  in  the  Lord's  lips,  either 
.  with  direct  address  to  the  person,  or  with  It  is  I!  It  is  not,  in 
the  New  Testament,  altogether  the  same  as  Fear  not !  ^  which 
once  at  least  in  the  apocryphal  book  of  Judith,  ch.  xi.  1,  is  con- 
nected with  it.  (Tobit  xii.  17,  only  in  Luther.)  Thus  the 
Apostle's  com'age  is  rather  strengthened,  than  his  fear  expressly 
taken  away.  His  sovd  was  not,  indeed,  at  this  time  filled  with 
pure  confidence  unalloyed  by  anxiety;  his  nature  might  well 
feel  its  infirmity,  while  as  the  "  man  in  Christ "  he  was  uttering 
his  testimony  in  the  light  and  strength  of  the  Spirit ;  and,  that 
being  over,  he  must  afterwards  have  felt  it  still  more.  His 
position  was  now — beyond  anything  that  he  had  anticipated — 

^  'Ew/(7T«j,  comp.  Luke  ii.  9  ;  xxiv.  4  ;  Acts  xii.  7,  of  angels ;  as  in  Luke 
XX.  1,  Acts  iv.  4,  and  xxiii.  27  (tliis  cliaiiter)  of  approaching  men. 

2  All  the  critics,  from  Griesbach  downwards,  strike  out  the  addition ; 
Knapp  alone  leaves  it  undecided.  The  testimonies  in  its  favour  are  not  in- 
significant, and  to  our  feeling  something  is  wanting  to  the  Qxposi. 

'^  Although  in  the  LXX.  the  s'^'^p-Vs;  ten  times  (according  to  Kircher)  is 
translated  by  dcipait. 


ACTS  XXIII.  11.  79 

so  confused  and  perplexed  between  the  Roman  avithorities,  the 
council,  and  the  people,  that  the  best  prospect  was  a  wearisome 
imprisonment,  with  moreover  the  danger  of  all  kinds  of  malici- 
ous plots  against  him.  How  stood  it  now  with  his  purpose,  after 
Jerusalem  to  visit  Eome  also  ?  The  prudent  thought  of  appeal- 
ing to  CiBsar,  which  was  suggested  by  the  development  of  the 
event,  he  had  certainly  not  as  yet  pondered  and  determined  on. 
As  of  his  Roman  citizenship,  so  also  of  the  right  of  appeal 
bound  up  with  it,  he  can  make  exceptional  use  only  when  the 
Lord's  directing  guidance  suggested  and  required  it.  Thus  St 
Paul  was  anxious,  prayed  probably  this  night  for  light  and 
strength  from  his  Lord,  and  he  obtained  his  answer.  But,  on 
the  other  hand,  we  must  not  regard  him  as  assailed  by  fear^  as 
in  Corinth  ;  still  less  must  we  assume,  what  Schaff  so  strongly 
expresses,  that  "  exhausted  by  many  fatigues,  overwhelmed  Avith 
anxiety  and  despondency,  he  might  lose  sight  of  his  plan  to 
preach  the  Gospel  in  Rome."  The  "  Be  of  good  courage ! " 
does  not  seem  to  us  to  go  on  such  a  supposition ;  but  rather  to 
carry  with  it  a  commending  acknowledgment  of  tlie  faithful 
sen^ant^ — So  far  all  is  we.ll,  be  still  oi  good  courage !  And  the 
rather,  as  the  reason  given  for  the  encom*agement,  before  the 
promise,  contains  in  itself  a  gracious  acknowledgment. 

As  thou  liast  home  ivifness  of  Me  in  Jerusalem — that  is, 
speaking  after  our  common  manner,  a  testimony  of  the  satisfac- 
tion of  his  Lord  and  King  with  his  conduct.  So — strange  that 
the  force  of  this  is  almost  universally  overlooked — gives  our 
Lord's  own  favourable  judgment  in  confirmation  of  our  exposition 
of  St  Paul's  deportment  recently  before  the  council.  St  Paul  did 
not  commit  himself  in  passion  and  precipitation  when  he  rebuked 
the  high  priest,  so  that  it  was  necessary  for  him  to  retract  v»dth 
the  unimaginable  and  almost  false  apology — I  knew  not,  or 
reflected  not,  that  he  Was  the  high  priest !  We  cnnnot 
think  that,  at  this  first  most  important  defence  of  the  great  wit- 
ness before  the  council,  the  grace  which  was  at  other  times  so 
abounding  wdthin  him  failed  his  spirit,  and  that  the  Spirit  pro- 
mised for  such  emergencies  ceased  altogether  to  guide  him — 
so  that  he  fell  to  the  level  of  Ananias,  whom  lie  rebuked,  in  his 
human  wrath !  In  truth,  St  Paul  could  not  before  this  miser- 
able council  have  so  unworthily  exposed  tJie  cause  of  his  Lord, 
1  Matt.  XV.  21,  in  the  Greek  eu  precedes. 


80         TO  ST  PAUL  IN  BONDS  AT  JERUSALEM. 

wliicli  was  in  tlie  estimation  of  liis  enemies  one  ^^dtll  his  own 
2:)erson,  as  to  ask  forgiveness  for  a  judgment  perfectly  just! 
That  would  have  been,  at  least  in  the  eyes  of  his  malignant  foes, 
at  once  to  impeach  by  his  own  conduct  the  bold  avowal  with 
which  he  had  commenced,  ver.  1.  No,  the  Lord  does  not  thus 
abandon  His  saints  in  the  critical  time,  and  suffer  His  repre- 
sentatives and  messengers  thus  to  fall.  Tlie  Lord  had  stood  by 
St  Paul  in  the  day,  even  as  He  stood  before  him  in  the  night. 
Thus  the  Apostle  had  rightly  and  worthily  testified  in  Jerusalem, 
as  the  Lord  says.  The  appeal  to  his  good  conscience  from  the 
beginning  was,  in  opposition  to  these  miscreants  and  knaves, 
quite  right.  The  cry  that  he  was  a  Pharisee,  that  he  held  with 
those  in  the  council  who  held  the  resurrection,  was  not  a  human 
expedient  of  craft  to  extricate  himself  from  difficulty  (against 
which  the  Apostle  himself  had  before  protested,  ch.  xx.  24), 
but  it  was  the  last  condescension  of  merciful  love,  which  the 
Lord  Himself  directed  him  to  exhibit.  The  apjDeal  to  this  party 
feeling  within  the  council  itself  was  a  most  legitimate  and 
solemn  protest  against  the  sitting  of  unbelieving  heretics  in  the 
midst  of  it — a  protest  against  the  verdict  upon  the  word  of  the 
Resurrection  given  by  those  who  already  in  their  theoiy  had 
rejected  it.  But  it  was  more  than  this,  it  was  a  demonstration 
of  supreme  compassion  and  grace ;  the  well-lmown  Gospel  of 
Christ,  which  was  the  real  point  of  dispute  throughout  the  pro- 
ceedings, condescended  to  appeal  to  the  one  only  existing  feeling 
in  the  council  of  which  it  could  take  advantage ;  St  Paul,  in  this 
last  great  testimony  at  Jerusalem,  cries  out  all  the  more  lu'gently 
the  more  vehemently  they  reject  him — The  true  and  genuine 
Judaism  is  nevertheless  on  my  side!  (comp.  ch.  xxviii.  20). 
Because  they  answered  him  only  by  blows,  the  Apostle's  pro- 
phecy (not  railing)  proceeded — God  loill  smite  thee !  and  it  not 
merely  fell  upon  Ananias  (who  according  to  Josephus  was  soon 
afterwards  smitten),  but  was  a  general  denunciation  upo^;!  all 
who  fall  under  the  just  judgment  of  God.^ 

"  J[s  thou  hast  borne  witness  concerning;  Me  in  Jerusalem" 
means,  certainly,  "  As  praiseworthily  and  as  rightly,  not  marring 
the  influence  of  thy  testimony  by  impropriety  and  defect.     So 

^  This  whole  scene  before  the  council  has  been  most  fully,  and,  as  far  as 
I  know,  more  distinctly  than  anywhere  else,  depicted  in  my  "Redcn  der 
Apostel." 


ACTS  XXIII.  11.  81 

must,  shalt,  and  wilt  thou  also  in  Rome  bear  witness !"  That 
which  the  Apostle  in  ch.  xix.  21  had  prosed  to  himself  for 
the  first  time  m  the  Spirit,  not  in  his  own  spnit  but  through 
Divine  impulse,  is  here  confirmed  by  the  Lord,  as  it  is  after- 
wards, ch.  xxvii.  24,  once  more  by  the  angel,  when  in  the  peril 
of  shipwreck  all  prospect  of  its  accomplishment  might  seem  to 
be  shut  out.  As  thou  hast  borne  witness,  thou  shall  bear  wit- 
ness: the  former,  which  had  taken  place,  is  the  pledge  of  the 
latter,  which  should  take  place.  "Thou  shalt  still  heai'  witness 
according  to  thy  vocation" — this  is  the  powerful  and  essential 
encouragement  which  the  Lord  addresses  to  His  servant,  who  in 
all  his  infirmity  desired  only  to  testify  unto  the  death.  Li  the 
two  great  capitals  of  the  then  known  world,  the  city  of  God  and 
the  city  of  Caesar  (the  latter  the  goal  of  the  Acts  !),  he  shordd 
bear  and  proclaim  the  name  of  Jesus.  The  city  of  Caesar,  the 
city  of  the  world,  had  also  its  high  calling  and  destination  for 
the  kingdom  of  God — alas,  she  fulfilled  it  but  a  short  time,  and 
soon  basely  fell  from  it !  It  is  already  hinted  by  the  Lord  that 
this  imprisonment  in  the  hands  of  the  Eomans  was  to  be  the 
means  to  that  end ;  for  the  as  and  the  so  contain  in  this  concise 
saying  more  than  one  meaning.  As  was  the  past,  so  surely  will 
be  the  future — as  thou  hast  rightly  borne  witness — and  finally,  as 
an  undertone  for  the  Apostle's  reflection,  as  hound  at  Jerusalem, 
so  also  with  these  bonds  in  Rome !  Thus  there  is  set  before 
the  Apostle  new  labour  in  continuing  tribulation,  and  tliat  itself 
was  real  encouragement  to  the  apostolical  spirit  of  testimony. 

"  Bear  witness  of  Me — to  faith  in  Me!''  (ch.  xx^'i.  18.)  We 
have  not  yet  remarked  that  this  is  not  strictly  according  to  the 
original,  which  means,  "bear  witness  of  the  things  concerning 
Me,  ^ly  cause."  It  is  not  merely  the  common  Greek  para- 
phrase for  the  person,  but  indicates,  by  a  fine  and  strikuig 
expression,  as  well  the  narrated  account  before  the  people  as 
the  maintenance  before  the  council  of  the  decisive  testimony 
concerning  Jesus  in  the  doctrine  of  the  resurrection  (compare 
ch.  XXV.  19  with  ch.  i.  22,  iv.  2,  33).  From  the  fact  that  the 
saying  contains   precise   delicacies  of    Greek   expression,^  we 

^  Not  only  this  rcc  -Trepl  l^oD,  but  also  the  intenser  word  cu^a-p-riipu^  as 
also  both  times  f/j  '  lspcivau7^v!fi,  iii'Vi)f<,r;v  ;  ■which  scarcely  stands  for  iy, 
but  used  in  the  latter  case  like  iig  fiocKpoiv,  ch.  ii.  39,  and  of  Jerusalem  also 
for  the  sake  of  similarity. 

P 


82  TO  ST  PAUL  IN  IIIS  INFIRMITY. 

might  suppose  (tliougli  no  more)  that  the  Lord  did  not  on  this 
occasion  speak  to  the  Apostle  in  Hebrew,  but  in  the  now  to  him 
current  missionary  language,  Greek;  and  this  would  have  its 
own  affectincT  sio-nificance,  besides  confirmino-  the  oehuineness 
of  the  personal  address  by  the  name  Paid,  as  this  was  the 
Greek  form  instead  of  Saul.  Be  that  as  it  may,  the  final  em- 
phasis of  the  whole  saying  rests  upon  the  disclosed  must  or 
sliall  (compare  ch.  ix.  6  and  16),  by  which  the  absolutely  cer- 
tain pre-ordained  future  is  indicated. 

This  was  not  yet  the  last  time  that  the  Lord  spoke  to  St 
Paul.  Besides  the  words  preserved  in  2  Cor.  xii.  9,  we  read 
elsewhere  of  visions,  manifestations,  and  revelations,  the  par- 
ticulars of  which  are  not  recorded.  These  repeated  revelations 
were  a  compensation  for  the  lack  of  that  intercourse  with  Jesus 
in  the  flesh  which  was  the  foundation  upon  which  the  other 
Apostles  stood;  and  a  continual  strengthening  of  St  Paul's 
confidence  in  the  independent  way  which  was  marked  out  for 
him,  and  which  to  him  was  to  be  so  peculiarly  full  of  suffering. 
There  was  a  considerable  interval  of  test  for  his  patience  and 
faith  between  Jerusalem  and  Rome ;  but  this  word  of  his  Lord 
was  the  pole-star  to  him  in  all  the  darloiess  of  his  way.  It 
constantly  assured  him  in  every  crisis  of  peril  that  there  was 
an  inviolable  ordination  concerninij  him : — that  his  life  could 
not  be  sacrificed  to  the  wrath  of  the  Jcavs  ;  ^  that  his  imprison- 
ment should  issue  in  public  testimony ;  that  the  sea  should 
not  swallow  him  up,  and  the  viper  not  do  him  harm.  Therefore 
it  was  that,  during  this  imprisonment,  the  Apostle  wrote  such 
letters  of  energy  and  consolation  ! 

VIII. 

TO  ST  PAUL  IN  HIS  INFIRMITY. 

(2  Cor.  xii.  9,) 

In  the  Epistles  to  the  Corinthians — although  we  should  not, 
humanly  speaking,  have  expected  such  special  confidecne  to 
this  chiu'ch — the  Apostle  has  most  entirely  exposed  himself, 

^  Whose  murderous  counsel,  in  ver.  12,  follows  in  miserable  opposition 
to  llie  Lord's  appointment. 


2  COR.  XII.  9.  83 

and  his  whole  personahty,  to  intimate  inspection.  He  so  fully 
exhibits  his  official  vocation  and  work,  the  way  in  which  God's 
power  "WTOught  in  his  words,  and  the  effectual  demonstration  of 
the  Holy  Ghost  as  it  was  proved  in  the  influence  which  he  was 
able  to  exert  upon  others,  that  these  two  Epistles  would  of 
themselves  furnish  ample  material,  if  properly  drawn  out  and 
arranged,  for  a  treatise  with  the  title,  "  The  Apostle  Paul,  de- 
lineated by  himself."  And,  still  more,  he  lays  bare  to  these 
Corinthians  the  inmost  merits  of  his  most  personal  intercoui'se 
with  the  Lord,  in  a  manner  of  which  we  find  no  other  example. 
He  presents  his  entire  personality  so  fully  as  to  make  these 
Corinthians  see  that  this  great  Apostle  was  by  nature  a  man 
like  themselves  (Jas.  v.  17) ;  and  thus  gives  us  in  these  Epistles 
an  impressive  and  most  important  example  of  the  proper  apj^re- 
ci^tion  of  the  personal  character^  in  opposition  to  the  absolute 
authority  of  any  office  whatever,  even  the  apostolical,  which 
it  is  sought  to  isolate  from  that  character,  and  make  independ- 
ent of  it.  And  all  this  is  perfectly  natirral ;  for  what  is  the 
Apostle's  aim  ?  He  would  suppress  and  rectify  the  spiritual- 
carnal  pride  which  was  so  conspicuous  in  the  Corinthians ;  he 
would  defend  the  authority  and  dignity  of  his  own  despised 
office.  But  how  could  he  more  fitly  accomplish  this  than  by 
revealing  to  them  the  power  of  God  in  his  o\n\  weakness, 
teaching  them  humihty  by  his  own  lowliness,  rebuking  and 
exhorting  them,  not  by  words  only,  but  by  setting  before  them 
the  most  direct  and  living  example  of  his  own  life  and  ex- 
perience ? 

In  this  we  find  the  key  for  the  interpretation  of  the  strain 
and  peculiarity  of  the  Epistles  to  the  Corinthians  genei-ally; 
and  particularly  a  solution  of  the  reason  why  we  find  in  this 
place  that  word  of  the  Lord  which  we  now  consider,  and  which 
is  the  only  immediately  spoken  word  of  Christ  recorded  in 
Scripture  between  the  Acts  and  the  Revelation.  St  Paul  must 
speak  of  the  labours  and  successes  which  legitimated  his  office ; 
but  he  would  rather  speak,  in  addition,  of  his  afflictions.  It  is 
necessaiy  that  he  should  glory  against  them  as  a  fool ;  but  in 
his  wisdom  he  glories  after  such  a  manner  that  God's  glory- 
alone  results,  and  his  own  is  brought  to  nought.  He  is  con- 
strained to  tell  them  of  high  revelations ;  but  he  places  beside 
them  his  own  deep  infirmity;   and  distinguishes  so  affectingly 


84  TO  ST  PAUL  IN  HIS  INFIRMITY. 

the  "  man  in  Christ"  from  himself,  that  his  absokite  subjection 
and  nothingness  before  his  Master  is  the  only  result  of  all.  It 
is  in  this  connection,  after  the  teaching  Avliich  so  wonderfully 
blends  together  in  his  own  example  humiliation  and  encourage- 
ment, that  he  relates  for  all  Christians  in  common  what  (among 
other  things)  the  Lord  had  said  to  Jdm  in  the  agony  of  his 
uttermost  trials. 

But — I  hear  the  reader  ask — have  we  really  any  right  to 
place  this  word  also  among  the  proper  words  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
from  heaven  1  Very  many  expositors  look  at  it  otherwise,  and 
regard  it  as  merely  an  expression  of  an  answer  of  the  Lord 
through  His  Spirit  within  Paul — such  an  answer  as  any  peti- 
tioner might  obtain.  But  is  it  this,  and  no  more  ?  May  we 
resolve  the  expression,  "  The  Lord  said  unto  me,"  into  the 
mere  suggestion  of  the  Lord's  Spirit,  as  if  it  meant,  "The  Loirl 
inspired  me  with  the  conviction,  and  it  was  to  me  as  if  He  had 
spoken?"  Assuredly  not,  dear  readers!  The  "man  like 
ourselves"  was  also  peculiarly/  favoured  above  other  men,  and 
stood  in  a  nearer  relation  of  internal  fellowship  than  that 
would  imply.  Wlien  he  simply  relates  this  speaking  of  the 
Lord  to  himself,  as  something  not  unusual,  he  gives  us  plainly 
to  understand  that  he  had  m.ore  than  once  received  express 
and  audible  communications  of  this  Idnd.  And  immediately 
before  he  had  been  speaking  of  visions,  and  revelations,  and 
trances.  And  when  he  now  gives  us  a  view  of  his  tribulations, 
he  shows  that  his  Lord  had  not  been  less  near  to  him  in  them. 
It  is  true  that  we  here  approach  the  boundary  where  the  per- 
sonal dh'ect  address  of  the  Lord,  this  time  certainly  without 
any  vision  or  appearance,  passes  over  into  the  Spmt's  ordi- 
nary method  of  communing  with  our  spirits,  in  which  be- 
lievers are  continually  receiving  His  words;  and  many  child- 
like, simple  souls  may  dare  to  say,  similarly  to  the  Apostle — 
Thus  did  the  Lord  Jesus  speak  to  me.  But  still  there  is 
a  difference :  it  was  not  simply  thus  that  St  Paul  heard  what 
is  here  recorded.  Here,  where  he  has  just  been  speaking  of 
revelations  generally,  he  distinguishes  plainly  and  expressly  the 
Lord's,,  to  liim,  well-known  speaking ;  so  that  we  must  take 
the  word  as  it  stands — it  Avas  an  audible  word  of  Jesiis  to  the 
Apostle. 

In  the  severe  conflict  of  profound  suffering — Avhich,  at  any 


2  COR.  XII.  9.  85 

rate,  the  tliorn  in  the  flesh,  the  messenger  of  Satan,^  must  in- 
dicate— he  had  prayed  the  Lord  thrice  for  the  removal  of  the 
distress ;  that  is,  according  to  New  Testament  and  apostohcal 
language,  not  to  "  the  Lord  God,"  but  to  the  Lord  Jesus,  to 
Him  who  in  the  days  of  His  flesh  had  thrice  prayed  to  His 
Father — Take  this  cup  from  Me !  Kot,  indeed,  with  the  per- 
fect resignation  of  Him  who  in  Gethsemane  learned  and 
confirmed  His  obedience  in  suffering,  for  there  might  be  some 
admixtm-e  of  human  impatience ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  not 
Avithout  the  humility  of  importunate  supplication,  in  which  no- 
thing more  is  required  of  us  weak  men  than  this — I  Avill  not 
let  thee  go,  unless  Thou  help  me!  Thrice; — this  we  cannot 
regard  as  a  mere  phi'ase  for  "several  tunes,  repeatedly ;"  the 
Apostle  would  have  been  restrained  from  such  a  phrase  by 
the  thoucrht  that  it  might  be  imderstood  as  an  intentional  com- 
parison  with  Gethsemane.  That  comparison  does  not  occm*  to 
him ;  he  simply  relates  what  actually  took  place :  thrice  I 
prayed  to  the  Lord — not  to  be  understood  of  intervals  of  sup- 
plication, days  or  nights  in  succession,  but  of  one  continuous 
struggle  in  prayer.  The  Lord  does  not  suffer  him  to  cry  a 
fourth  or  a  seventh  time ;  but  He,  the  same  to  whom  St  Paul 
addressed  his  supplication,  gave  him  at  the  third  tune  the 
sublime  answer.  And  that  answer  will  be  filled  with  a  richer 
strength  and  emphasis  to  us  all,  for  whose  sake  the  Apostle  has 
communicated  it,  if  we  regard  it  not  merely  as  a  DiAane  conso- 
lation inspired  into  the  Apostle's  soul,  but  as  an  express  and 
definite  word  of  the  Lord  from  heaven. 

Literally,  according  to  the  original :  SumciEXT    is   My 

,GIIACE    TO    THEE,  FOR    My    STRENGTH    IS    PERFECT    IN    (tHE) 

AATSAEJfESS.  This  decisive  expression,  the  saving  ordinance  and 
rule  of  conduct,  as  it  were,  for  all  who  are  severely  tried  in  the 
follomng  of  Clirist,  has  first  its  special  meaning  for  St  Paul, 
but  also  a  general  s}-mbolical  meaning  and  design.  Indeed, 
this  universal  significance  is  stamped  upon  the  form  of  it  (for 
the  second  clause  is  not  a  personal  address)  more  definitely  than 
in  the  earlier  sapngs  of  the  glorified  Lord ;  so  that  here  also  we 
discern  a  transition  to  the  more  ordinaiy  communications  of  the 
Saviour  to  His  people.     That  even  a  Paul  was  still  in  danger  of 

1  The  difficult  interpretation  of  which,  so  fax  as  it  belongs  to  the  ques- 
tion here,  we  shall  subsequently  consider. 


S6  TO  ST  PAUL  IN  HIS  INFIRMITY. 

being  exalted  by  the  superabmidance  of  tlie  revelations,  and  of 
preaching  to  others  through  the  still  remaining  gifts  of  grace, 
while  himself  a  castaway  through  the  loss  of  grace  itself,  is  a 
most  keen  and  earnest  warning,  which  St  Paul's  own  person — 
with  all  its  high  prerogative  of  election,  still  a  perfectly  typical 
and  exemplari/  person — impresses  upon  us  all!  -  The  Lord 
secures  him  against  this  danger  by  sufferings,  which  must  so 
bring  home  his  infirmity  to  him  that  he  can  find  no  consolation 
but  gi'ace,  and  must  for  ever  give  up  all  glorying  in  that  he  had 
received  from  God.  And  this  is  to  us  all  the  way  of  grace  and 
the  method  of  oui*  salvation.  Are  there  sufferings  which  we 
procui'e  for  ourselves,  and  which  we  may  avoid  by  avoiding  the 
sins  which  occasion  them  and  which  they  punish?— so  there  are 
also  sufferings  which  the  wisdom  and  mercy  of  the  Lord  im- 
poses upon  us  without  any  specific  guilt  of  our  own,  though  for 
the  sake  of  the  luiiversal  sin  of  our  corrupted  nature.  Are  there 
tribulations  which  we  may  pray  against,  remove  by  fervent  and 
persevering  appeals  to  the  Redeemer  and  Plelper  of  our  souls'? 
— so  there  are  also  appointed  and  salutary  burdens  which  shall 
not  and  must  not  be  taken  from  us ;  although  grace  will  esta- 
blish, strengthen,  and  console  the  spit^it  under  every  tribulation 
of  the  fiesh.  For  even  the  most  keenly  penetrating  trial  of  the 
human  spirit  is  essentially  only  a  thorn  in  the  flesh,  in  the 
nature  which  is  flesh  born  of  flesh.  It  is  even  questionable 
whether  that  Avhich  St  Paul  found  so  hard  that  he  thought  he 
could  not  longer  bear  it,  did  not  consist  in  such  so-called  spiritual 
assaults  of  satanic  temptation :  he  might,  in  harmony  with  his 
jihraseology  elsewhere,  name  them  a  thoni  in  the  flesh.  We 
might,  indeed,  almost  say,  that  to  bear  the  most  painful  tribula- 
tion in  the  body  had  become  a  light  thing  to  the  Apostle, 
through  the  discipline  of  gi-ace ;  and  that  the  counterpoise  to 
high  revelations  would  be  trials  which  fell  upon  the  true  and 
inner  flesh. 

Be  that  as  it  may,  and  to  decide  this  is  not  of  moment, 
Christ's  word  retains  its  universal  meaning  for  all  those  salutary 
afflictions  which  may  seem  to  us  intolerable,  but  which  He  has 
irrevocably  ordained. '  He  infuses  His  grace — so  that  we  can 
bear  them ;  and,  not  only  so,  the  bitterest  medicine  becomes  at 
last  sweet  in  the  good  and  gracious  will  of  oiir  Lord.  My 
GRACE — is  the  word  of  His  majesty  and  power,  as  well  as  of 


2  COR.  XII.  9.  87 

Ilis  love  and  consolation.  Lutlier  thouglit  to  brine  out  the 
saying  better  when  he  translated — let  it  he  sufficient !  and  we 
are  loath  to  correct  trifles  in  sentences  which  the  Holy  Ghost 
has  made  precious  to  so  many.  Here,  however,  the  meaning  is 
considerably  affected.^  The  immediate  assurance  is  more  needed 
by  the  desponding  than  the  exliortation  and  doctrine,  and  it  is 
that  which  is  first  given.  As  the  answer  to  the  anxious  ques- 
tion— "Am  I  then  abandoned,  cast  out,  rejected?"  comes  the 
fact,  not  expressed,  but  graciously  taken  for  granted,  that  Christ's 
grace  is  already  with  the  Apostle,  that  he  has  it,  testified  by 
Him  who  alone  is  perfectly  assm'ed  of  it.  ','  I  am  merciful  to 
thee !  Thou  hast  My  grace  !  What  wilt  thou  more  | "  Even 
if  the  tempted  man  might  not  in  his  weakness  be  satisfied  with 
that,  Avhich  he  was  to  learn  and  would  learn.  His  merciful 
Lord  declares  to  him  the  fact  against  all  his  doubt,  as  a  truth 
beyond  all  his  consciousness  and  feeling.  It  is  so  !  Thou  hast 
sufficient  in  My  grace !  The  Lord  places  this  word,  as  it  were, 
in  St  Paul's  lips,  that  He  may  utter  it  after  Him  in  faith — "  Yea, 
Lord,  Thy  gi-ace  is  sufficient  for  me."  Zinzendorf  brings  out, 
in  his  translation,  the  true  exliortation — "Be  content,  that  I  am 
merciful  to  thee ! "  but  the  exhortation  is  all  the  stronger  for  not 
being  expressed. 

Now,  as  in  almost  every  previous  instance,  the  Lord  speaking 
from  heaven  gives  in  the  second  clause  the  ground  and  reason  of 
the  first,  by  a  subhme  demonstrative  For.  That  which  He 
thus  goes  on  to  say  and  testify  is  no  longer  directly  spoken  to 
the  Apostle ;  but  it  is  given  to  him  as  a  general  saying  ap- 
plicable to  himself,  and  placing  him  under  a  universal  ordinance. 
And  what  a  saying — doctrine  and  fact  at  once  for  Christ's 
kingdom  of  grace,  in  inexhaustible  depth  and  comprehensive- 
ness of  meaning !  For  My  strength — we  hold  fast  this  reading 
against  Tischendorf  and  Lachmann,  and  this  time  even  against 
Bengel.  The  latter  thinks  that  if  St  Paul  had  written  "  My 
strength,"  he  must  also  have  added  "in  thy  weakness."  But 
why  ?  The  question  is  not  so  much  what  St  Paul  might  have 
written,  as  what  was  fitting  for  the  Lord  to  say,  and  what  He 
actually  could  have  said.  "  My  strength"  was  alone  appropriate; 
but  "  thy  weakness "  could  not  follow,  for  the  reason  already 

^  For,  that  xiiKii  must  be  translated  sufficere  debet,  sufficiat — ^is  arbitrary 
and  vapid,  after  the  style  of  Rosenmiiller. 


80  TO  ST  PAUL  IN  HIS  USTFIRMITY. 

assigned,  that  the  saying  is  a  universal  one.  That  great  student 
of  Scripture  seems  to  have  afterwards  bethought  himself ;  for, 
in  his  translation  of  the  New  Testament,  the  "  My "  remains. 
Manuscripts  and  authorities  are  generally  not  decisive  of  them- 
selves ;  here  certainly  not,  where  important  witnesses  are  on  both 
sides.  The  decision  is  finally  matter  of  taste  and  feeling,  of 
internal  reasons.  A  recent  English  critic^  says,  that,  unless  he 
errs,  the  word  was  added  for  distinctness'  sake,  and  to  make  the 
sentence  coincide  with  the  Apostle's  subsequent  "  the  power  of 
ChristP  We  tliink,  on  the  contrary,  that  this  subsequent  word 
of  the  Apostle,  which  appropriates  to  himself  the  word  of  the 
Lord,  and  repeats  its  emphatic  "  My,"  is  in  favour  of  the 
ordinary  reading.  We  maintain  that  the  Lord  would  have 
spoken  not  merely  with  less  dignity,  but  with  an  obscurity  which 
might  easily  be  misunderstood,  if  He  had  spoken  of  strength 
generally  instead  of  His  own  strength.  The  repeated  ^^  My 
grace,  My  strength,"  is  altogether  in  harmony  with  the  throne- 
style  of  His  words  from  heaven,  as  we  have  heard  it  throughout. 
If  He  had  said,  almost  descending  from  His  dignity  to  an 
altogether  general  dogma,  "  For  strength  is  made  perfect  in  the 
weakness  (or  in  weakness)" — it  is  true,  we  admit,  that  the 
Apostle  would  at  once  have  been  likely  to  understand  it  of 
Chns£s  strength ;  but  to  all  others,  in  the  long  future  of  His  king- 
dom of  grace,  for  whom  this  word  was  to  be  preserved,  this  inter- 
pretation of  it  would  not  have  been  sufficiently  obvious.  Does 
not  the  saying  thus  run  altogether  in  the  form  of  a  common 
proverb,  especially  with  its  striking  apparent  antithesis  of  op- 
posite words  ?  "  Strength  is  fully  approved,  made  perfect,  in 
tceakness" — is  this,  then,  commonly  true?  The  Eomanist 
expositor  AUioli,  who  clings  to  the  Vulgate,  "  first  of  all "  refers 
the  grace  and  the  strength  to  God,  but  then  goes  suspiciously 
further :  "  Moral  strength,  the  higher  life  of  man,  is  also  meant, 
so  that  the  words  include  the  meaning  that  the  higher  life  of 
the  spirit,  virtue  in  man,  is  brought  to  perfection  by  such 
tribulations;  through  the  weakening  of  the  old  natiire  we 
attain  unto  the  perfect  power  of  the  new  life."  Eightly  under- 
stood, this  is  true ;  but  still  it  may  be  misapprehended,  and  may 
be   taken  in  that  meaning   for  which    Grotius   has   collected 

^  Alford,  who  sometimes  concedes  too  much  to  German  science. 


2  COE.  XII.  9.  81) 

several  passages  from  the  Classics.^  This  indefinite  and  gene- 
ral saying  concerning  strength  in  weakness  may  have,  under  the 
discipline  of  concealed  preparatory  grace,  where  there  is  no 
absolute  distinction  between  what  is  man's  and  what  is  God's,  a 
certain  preliminary  prophetic  truth — but  in  the  kingdom  of 
Christ,  where  nature  and  gi'ace  are  distinctly  separated,  it  is  no 
longer  applicable ;  and  as  a  rule  in  His  Idngdom  it  covild  not 
have  been  asserted  by  Christ.  It  would  have  been  necessaiy 
that  He  should  add,  in  order  to  obviate  in  His  msdom  all  mis- 
understanding and  error — "In  Me,  and  only  in  Me,  is  the 
sapng  true  concerning  strength  in  weakness."  The  opposite  is 
true  of  His  servants,  in  their  conflicts  under  the  light  of  His 
heart-searching  countenance ;  and  the  warning  must  have  been 
given — "  Your  own  strength  is  weak  even  in  the  strong;  it 
comes  to  its  end  in  weakness,  passes  away,  and  comes  to  nought." 
And  this  is  what  the  Lord  does  say  in  warning,  when  He  de- 
clares, as  we  must  understand  the  expression — "My  strength 
is  made  perfect  in  weakness ! " 

Now  at  length  we  have  made  full  provision  for  a  further 
exposition  of  this  profound  thought.  The  progress  into  the 
second  clause  thus  testifies — My  grace,  the  grace  of  God  in  Me 
and  through  Me  for  men,  is  power  in  them  (Eph.  i.  19,  iii.  7  ; 
Col.  i.  29).  And  what  a  truth  is  this !  Who  is  sufiicient  to 
expound  it  fully  ?  We  can  now  only  give  prominence  to  its 
protest  against  all  the  misimderstanding  and  pen^ersion  which 
is  too  Hghtly  satisfied  with  the  profound  word  "  grace,"  and 
denies  it  all  its  meaning.  We  mean  all  such  idle  resting  in  the 
consolation  of  "  the  forgiveness  of  sins,"  and  the  consciousness  of 
justification,  as  forgets  that  this  gTace  is  perfected  in  the  power 
of  sanctification.  Berlenb.  Bible :  "  Grace  is  here  not  alone 
forgiVeness  of  sins,  but  something  that  loorks  in  a  man  and 
overcomes  his  sins,  though  not  without  his  sufferino;."  This  is 
according  to  the  ever-needful  word  of  St  James — "And  not  by 
faith  alone ! "  Assuredly,  not  the  beginning  alone,  but  the 
abidino;  rn'oimd  of  all  strenath  of  m-ace,  is  the  firm  consolation 

1  Of  Pliny  :  Optimos  nos  esse,  clum  infinni  sumus.  Of  Seneca :  Cala- 
mitas  virtutis  occasio  est.  Of  Quintilian :  Temeritas  omnis  animorum  cala- 
mitate  coi'porum  frangitur.  That  a  "self-collected,  humble,  and  thus  con- 
fident, boldness  of  spirit  is  strengthened  in-  conflict " — can  scarcely  satisfy 
here. 


90  TO  ST  PAUL  IN  HIS  INFIRMITY. 

— I  obtained  mercy !  But  it  is  most  important  to  know  and 
experience  tliat  this  consolation  is  itself,  and  works,  power  in  the 
soul ;  that  he  who  rejoices  in  the  grace  of  Christ  has  received 
it  to  that  end,  and  can  only  thus  find  it  sufficient. 

Luther's  translation — "Meine  Kraft  ist  in  den  Schwachen 
mlichtig"  (My  strength  is  mights/  in  the  weak) — is  very  far  from 
bringing  out  the  weight  and  significance  of  this  word  of  our 
Lord.  It  is  not  to  no  purpose  tliat  He  orders  the  expressions 
with  a  threefold  difference :  not  in  the  loeak,  but  in  weakness ; 
not  merely  mighty  (which  is  self-understood,  as  being  funda- 
mentally the  same  with  strength),  but  perfect;  not  merely  is 
perfect,  but  is  made  so.  It  is  not  only  that  the  phraseological 
contrast  "  strength  and  weakness "  must  be  retained ;  the  ex- 
pression gives  another  meaning,  since  it  speaks  not  so  much  of 
the  loeah  in  common  (which  we  all  are,  and  always,  of  ourselves), 
but  of  jDarticular  circumstances  and  trials  in  M^hich  the  weakness 
makes  itself  especially  felt — precisely  in  the  same  sense  as  the 
Apostle  presently,  and  frequently  elsewhere,  uses  the  word.  In 
weakness  (there  is  no  article  in  the  original),  as  in  the  element 
and  domain  of  its  worldng,  the  strength  is  perfected,  approves 
and  confirms  itself  perfectly.  Zinzendorf :  "  It  first  becomes 
absolutely  mighty."  But  this,  once  more,  is  not  spoken  (in  the 
sense  of  ch.  iv.  7)  of  the  weak,  earthen  vessel  of  human  nature 
generally,  in  which  the  superabounding  grace  of  God  works, 
but  of  the  perfecting  of  its  indwelling  and  penetrating  influence, 
presujDposed  even  at  the  beginning ;  and  concerning  this  per- 
fecting it  is  said  for  consolation,  that  it  only,  but  also  certainly, 
is  brought  to  its  consummation  in  weakness,  in  the  path  of  trials 
and  suJJ'ering.  The  power  is  made  perfect,  becomes  consum- 
mate— that  is,  obviously,  not  in  itself,  since  as  power  it  is 
already  perfect ;  but  it  absolutely  approves  itself,  expresses  its 
perfect  energy  and  influence.^  As  Christ  Himself  reached  the 
It  is  finished  in  the  strength  of  God,  through  uttermost  weak- 
ness upon  the  cross  (ch.  xiii.  4) — and  He  remembers  this,  now 
speaking  from  heaven — so  through  the  continual  energy  of  His 
strength  in  His  servants  a  victorious  perfection  is  wrought  out, 
in  the  same  way  of  suffering  and  subjection  in  weakness.  And 
if  it  be   Satan,   or  his  angel,  who  causes  the  weakness  and 

^  Bengcl :  oiDnia  sua  peragit :  the  reading  n'Kurxi  or  riMioirui  makes 
scarcely  any  difference. 


2  coil.  XII.  9.  91 

tribulation,  Christ's  power  is  victorious  over  liini  in  all  who 
receive  Christ's  grace,  and  who  retain  it  in  faith ;  that  is,  who 
count  that  grace  sufficient,  trust  in  it  absolutely  and  humbly, 
and  wait  confidently  for  its  full  demonstration  of  its  power. 

St  Paul  himself  at  once  makes  the  application,  setting  himself 
before  the  Corinthians  and  us  all  as  a  pattern  :  "  Because  it  is 
so  as  the  Lord  said  unto  me — and  that  is  sufficient  for  me  !  — 
therefore  I  will  rather  glory  in  my  infirmities,  that  the  power 
of  Christ  may  dwell  in  me."  How  humbling  this  to  the  Corin- 
thians, Avho  gloried  in  the  gifts  which  dwelt  among  them ! 
What  a  lesson  is  here  taught  by  supreme  authority,  tlirough 
the  person  of  St  Paul — that  to  have  grace  is  sufficient,  and 
infinitely  more  than  the  possession  of  all  gifts  !  The  greatest 
danger,  even  for  "  men  in  Christ"  (ver.  2),  is  ever  that  of — 
thinldng  too  highly  of  themselves.  The  safest,  rather  the  only 
safe,  way  for  the  most  sanctified  and  favom-ed  with  special 
dispensation,  is  to  humble  themselves  under  the  mighty  hand  of 
God,  whose  salutary  discipline  will  never  cease ;  to  place  them- 
selves among  the  chief  of  sinners,  that  they  may  receive  the 
perfection  of  Christ's  strength  in  their  own  weakness.  The 
best  ansAver  for  the  natm'al  mind,  even  of  an  elect  Apostle,  in- 
clined to  pride,  and  therefore  exposed  to  despondency  in  the 
time  of  oppressive  trial — given  to  him  for  the  sake  of  the 
puffed-up  Corinthians,  and  of  all  the  downcast  every^vhere — 
and  which,  in  the  most  gracious  form  of  an  almost  enforced 
consolation,  "  Thou  hast  grace  !"  points  to  the  victorious  con- 
summation of  their  power,  as  found  only  in  the  sufferings 
which  crush  in  them  all  that  is  their  own.  It  is  a  most  tender 
repulsion  of  the  urgent  prayer  that  the  salutary  rod  of  disci- 
pline might  be  removed.^  The  supplication  of  his  faith  to  the 
great  Helper,  in  the  time  of  his  distress,  was  good  and  right — 
for  what  better  can  oui-  weakness  do  through  the  grace  of 
Godf — but  the  answer  comes  down  from  heaven  with  victo- 
rious power  into  the  depth  of  trial  and  discomfiture  :  "  Ask  not 
so  vehemently  and  unconditionally  that  thy  will  may  be  done, 
the  will  of  thy  flesh,  which  is  unwilhng  to  suffer  for  holiness 
and  salvation  !"  Albertini  (sometime  Bishop  of  the  Moravian 
Brethren)  very  foolishly  charges  the  Apostle,  in  one  of  his 

1  As  V.  Gerlach  says,  after  Bengel  (Benignissima  repulsa,  indicative 
modo  expressa). 


92  TO  ST  JOHN  IN  PATMOS. 

sermons,  with  falling  here,  in  Scripture,  into  foolish  self-ex- 
altation ;  but  his  own  experience  taught  him  to  speak  more 
correctly  in  what  follows :  "  We  have  here  a  sample  of  the 
spiritual  history  and  the  spiritual  discipline,  not  of  St  Paul 
only,  but  of  all  pardoned  sinners.  Everjnvhere  glorious  reve- 
lations, and  rough  suiferings  to  qualify  them.  Always  allr-sujjl- 
ciency  in  the  grace  of  the  Saviour,  and  always  insufficiency  on 
our  part !"  St  Paul  knew  avcU  to  teach  the  fruit  and  neces- 
sity of  afflictions ;  but  when  they  come  in  all  their  secret  force 
upon  his  own  soul,  in  order  to  make  him  (according  to  what 
had  been  predicted  for  him.  Acts  ix.  16)  perfect  as  an  elect 
vessel  for  the  name  of  Jesus,  he  needs  once  more  direct  instruc- 
tion and  help  from  heaven.  And  this  he  received :  the  Lord 
nttered  to  him  these  Avords,  from  which  he  never  afterwards 
ceased  to  derive  strength.  He  repeats  it  here  in  the  centre  of 
his  teaching  to  the  Corinthians,  who  themselves  specially 
needed  it ;  but  he  also  says  it  to  tis  all,  and  leads  us  into  the 
inmost  mystery  of  the  Lord's  spiritual  communion  with  our 
hearts — in  which  His  gTace  and  strength  graciously  encourage 
our  weakness,  in  order  to  perfect  in  it  His  work. 


IX. 

TO  ST  JOHN  IN   PATMOS,  AT  THE  BEGINNING  OF  HIS  VISIONS. 

(Rev.  i.  11,  17-20.) 

St  John — a  personality  gifted  and  called  in  another  manner 
than  St  Paul !  All  that  may  be  established  as  to  the  difference 
between  these  two,  both  in  their  natural  and  supernatural  birth ; 
as  to  their  several  historical  relations  in  their  apostolical  office, 
with  all  the  important  consequences  which  resulted  from  these 
several  relations, — may  very  appropriately  be  brought  into 
view  here,  when  we  are  called  to  see  and  hear  how  the  Lord 
comes  and  speaks  to  His  servant  John  in  Patmos.  Not  that 
we  can  now  enter  at  large  upon  this  subject ;  it  is  enough  if 
we  remind  our  readers — whom  we  suppose  to  be  thoughtful 
students  of  Scripture — of  its  importance,  as  exhibited,  for  in- 
stance, in  our  observations  upon  the  last  chapter  of  St  John's 


REV.  I.  11,  17-20.  95 

Gospel.  St.  Paul,  altiiougli  not  without  strong  points  of  dis- 
similarity to  St  Peter,  stands  by  las  side  in  the  energy  of 
external  influence :  and  both  are  tlius  in  opposition  to  St  John, 
whose  spirit  was  pre-eminently  inward  and  contemplative.  The 
Apostles  who  were  mighty  in  action  and  teaching  founded  the 
Chiu'ch  in  the  beginning  from  among  the  Jews  and  the  Gen- 
tiles ;  but  St  John,  living  himself  in  profound  heart-mysti^ 
cism,  who  livingly  combines  together  all  that  had  been  dialec- 
tically  developed  in  detail,  who  sinks  with  his  readers  into  the 
inmost  centre  of  the  fundamental  principles  of  the  truth  (light ! 
life  !  love !),  speaking  from  the  Lord's  heart  to  om-  hearts — he, 
and  only  he,  among  the  elect  could  have  been  the  Seer  of  the 
New  Testament.  His  calm  and  tranquil  soul  was  the  purest 
mirror  for  the  reflection  of  those  great  symbolic  figures,  in  which 
the  Lord  w^ould  close  His  words  from  heaven  for  all  futurity, 
seal  and  subscribe  the  new  Holy  Scriptm'e  at  its  close,  and 
expound  what  was  still  in  arrear  of  Old  Testament  prophecy 
for  His  Chm-cli  down  to  the  end  of  its  career — most  plainly, 
tliough  under  a  sevenfold  veil — so  that,  in  the  process  of  fulfil- 
ment, liistory  makes  all  His  meaning  clear  to  His  believing 
people.  The  disciple,  who  gave  not  his  name  in  the  Gospel, 
here,  on  the  contrary,  mentions  it  three  times  at  the  outset, 
and  once  again  at  the  end  (ch.  x:di.  8).^  Not  to  discern  the 
Apostle  John  in  the  writer  of  the  Apocalypse,  as  w^ell  as  in  the 
Gospel,  is  a  pseudo-criticism,  the  worst  characteristics  of  which 
condemn  themselves  to  every  simple  eye,  and  the  best,  most 
plausible  characteristics  of  wliicli  are  wanting  in  insight  into  the 
Divine  plan  both  of  Scripture  and  the  kingdom  of  grace.  For 
this  plan,  according  to  which  the  whole  of  Scriptm-e  must  'cor- 
respond to  the  whole  process  of  the  kingdom,  would  not  have 
been  rounded  and  complete  without  the  revelation  given  to  St 
John. 

Once  more  the  faiiliful  Witness  opens  His  mouth  in  a  con- 
firming conclusion  of  all ;  but  words  are  not  sufficient  for  this 
great  close ;  it  must  be  shoivn  in  speaking  figures,  just  as  the 
mysteries  of  God  had  been  declared  from  the  beginning  by  His 
servants  the  prophets.  The  final  matter  of  all  these  final  visions 
is  the  coming  of  the  Lord,  the  Conqueror  in  all  the  conflicts  of 
His  Church;  that  coming  wdiich  typical  catastrophes  precede 
*  The  correct  reading  omits  the  name  in  ch.  xxi.  2. 


94  TO  ST  JOHN  IN  PATMOS. 

(Matt.  xvi.  28).  Shortly  before  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem, 
which  was  one  of  those  comin<Ts — almost  simultaneous  with  it, 
and  yet  beholding  beforehand  what  he  afterwards  survived — St 
John  received  the  Revelation,  in  which  the  Lord  says — "Behold 
I  come ! " 

Not  under  Domitian,  but  under  Nero,  was  the  Apostle 
banished  to  desolate  Patmos,^  for  the  Word  of  God  and  the  testi- 
mony of  Jesus  Christ.  This  island,  as  Bengel  observes,  looked 
towards  Asia,  where  were  the  seven  churches,  siuTouiided  by 
the  three  divisions  of  the  world,  and  the  capitals  of  the  five  sub- 
sequent Patriarchates.  In  this  solitude,  separated  only  in  body 
from  the  worshipping  community,  and  on  that  account  only  the 
more  firmly  united  with  it  in  spirit,  the  Apostle  celebrated  the 
Lord!s  day,  the  birthday  of  the  First-born  from  the  dead  (ver.  5) ; 
his  devotion  had  ah'eady  raised  him  into  ecstasy  in  the  spirit, 
when  this  ecstasy  was  heightened,  and  this  Sunday  was  made 
to  him  one  of  the  especial  days  of  the  Lord.  Let  us  not  forget 
to  observe  the  confirmation  which  this  gives  to  the  Church's 
Sabbath :  St  John  does  not  fail  to  observe  it,  though  alone. 
Jesus  comes  to  him  on  His  own  day,  just  as  in  the  beginning 
He  had  returned  to  His  disciples  on  the  recurrence  of  the  day 
of  His  resiuTection. 

He  hears  a  loud  voice  as  of  a  trumpet :  not  merely  like  the 
voice  of  the  herald  proclaiming  the  coming  of  the  King,  as  the 
word  has  been  used  in  Scripture  from  Sinai  downwards,  and  as, 
before  this  revelation,  the  trumpets  of  the  day  of  judgment  are 
spoken  of ;  but  the  voice  speaks  to  him  immediately  in  intel- 
ligible words.  The  voice  sounds  behind  him,  so  that  his  atten- 
tion is  excited  to  hear  before  any  sight  has  too  much  amazed 
him.  Affrighted  enough,  however,  he  tm'ns  and  looks  round 
him,  and  beholds  a  manifestation  of  the  Lord.  Whether  the 
first  voice  proceeded  from  the  Lord  Himself,  may  admit  of 
question ;  Ebrard  denies  that  it  did,  and  thinks  that  a  heralding 
angel  uttered  it,  who  is  also  referred  to  in  ch.  iv.  1.  But,  after 
most  careful  consideration  of  tlie  text,  we  cannot  agree  with 
him.  To  us  it  seems  that  St  John  in  the  spirit  on  tlic  Lord's 
day  needed  not  the  mediation  of  any  such  herald :  he  needed 

^  'EysvoftYiv,  just  as  before,  "  I  was  in  the  isle  ;  "  where  we  must  not  ex- 
pound— I  came,  or,  had  come,  like  ysviadxi,  e.g.,  2  Tim.  i.  17  ;  Luke  x.  32, 
xxii.  40. 


REV.  I.  11,  17-20.  95 

only  the  first  cry  that  he  should  see  and  "WTite  his  visions ;  and 
that  summons  must  have  been  the  Lord's  own  voice  on  the  day 
of  the  Lord.  The  "I  will  show  thee !"  afterwards  in  ch.  iv.  1 
is  appropriate,  as  we  think,  only  to  the  Same  who  at  the  begin- 
ning began  to  say  (ch.  i.  11) — "  What  thou  seest,  WTite  ! "  The 
distinction'  of  the  ^'Jirst  voice "  in  ch.  iv.  looks  forivard  to  the 
voices  -which  Avere  afterwards  heard,  and  means,  The  same  first 
voice  and  no  other ;  it  marks  the  difference  (for  so  much  is  true) 
between  that  first  tiiimpet-like  cry  and  the  more  qualified  tone 
of  the  voice  which  spoke  to  him  like  the  sound  of  many  waters. 
And  ver.  12  is  similarly  to  be  understood:  St  John  turned 
himself  round  to  see  the  voice  that  spake  with  him — that  is.  Him 
from  whom  it  came — and  he  saw  the  form  of  the  Son  of  Man, 
not  of  an  angel ;  and  that  Son  of  Man  continued  to  speak. 

But  the  Jit'st  word  of  this  trumpet-utterance  of  the  Lord  was 
not,  as  the  translation  gives  it,  "  I  am  Alpha  and  Omega,  the 
First  and  the  Last ! "  This  is  one  of  the  many  false  reachngs 
which  are  the  result  of  transposition  in  this  book.  How  could 
this  "  I  am  "  of  the  supreme  majesty  of  the  God-man  have  been 
uttered  before  the  Apostle  had  become  collected  enough  to  see 
the  Speaker,  and  had  become  really  a  seer  ?  The  first  words  are 
plain  and  simple  as  possible,  though  spoken  vsdth  loud  voice : 
What  thou  seest,  vtrite  in  a  book,  AjStd  send  it  unto 
the  seven  churches  which  are  in  asia ;  unto  ephesus, 
AND  UNTO  Smyrna,  and  unto  Pergamos,  and  unto  Thy- 

ATIRA,    AND    UNTO    SaRDIS,    AND    UNTO    PHILADELPHIA,    AND 

UNTO  Laodicea.  This  is  the  only  correct  commencement : 
What  thou  seest,  that  is,  wilt  see  now  and  henceforth,  what  I 
Avill  show  thee.  This  is  the  plainest  annunciation  and  beeinnincj 
of  the  visions  :  the  calling  of  St  John  to  be  the  last  seer  in  the 
whole  series  of  the  canon  of  Holy  Scripture ;  although  prophetic 
revelation  of  a  lower  degree  may  have  continued  in  the  Chui'ch 
of  Christ.  He  should  see  and  write,  that  it  may  be  a  book 
added  to  Scripture ;  the  entire  book  being  dictated  by  the  Lord 
Himself,  in  the  manner  of  things  seen.  But  this  book,  without 
disparagement  to  its  vast,  far-reaching  destination  for  the  whole 
Church  to  the  end  of  time,  is,  according  to  the  law  of  prophecy, 
typically  connected  with  the  present  time ;  it  was,  first  of  all,  to 
be  sent  to  the  Seven  Chm'ches,  which  were  specially  elected  to 
become  tj^es.     We  may  well  suppose  that  St  John  in  the  spirit, 


96  TO  ST  JOHN  IN  TATMOS. 

in  liis  solitary  Sunday  solemnities  at  Patmos,  had  been  present 
with  these  his  churches,  and  had  regarded  them  in  his  earnest 
supplications  to  the  Lord ;  so  that  this  commission  would  gra- 
ciously meet  his  own  inmost  wish  and  impulse  to  have  some 
apostolical  intercourse  with  them  from  the  place  of  his  banish- 
ment. The  names  are  mentioned  in  geographical  order  from 
Patmos :  Ephesus,  the  nearest;  Smyrna,  to  the  north,  and  Per- 
gamos ;  bending  lower  into  Asia  Minor,  Thyatira  and  Sardis 
nearer,  and  Philadelphia  and  Laodicea  farthest  removed.  That 
with  this  geographical  order  there  marvellously  coincides  a  pro- 
phetic symbolical  significance,  we  shall  see  hereafter,  upon  the 
indications  given  by  our  Lord  Himself  (ver.  20)  of  the  mystery 
of  the  seven  stars,  candlesticks,  churches.  At  present  we  re- 
mark only  that,  according  to  the  first  word  of  Christ,  the  seven 
epistles  were  to  accompany  the  whole  hooh  as  its  special  dedica- 
tion ;  hence,  in  ver.  4,.  St  John  designates  the  whole  book  an 
epistle  from  his  own  hand,  in  wliich  the  seven  immediate 
epistles  are  found  inserted.^  The  solemn  commission  to  write 
recm's  at  the  most  sublime  passages  of  the  Dook,  ch.  xiv.  13  and 
xxi.  5 ;  compare  the  final  conclusion,  ch.  xxii.  17.  As  the  first 
place  in  Holy  Writ  where  the  word  "  write "  occurs,  Ex.  xxii. 
14,  contains  a  Divine  commission  to  Moses  touching  the  de- 
struction of  the  arch-enemy  of  Israel — "Write  this  for  a 
memorial  in  a  book  "  (in  the  Book,  the  great,  complete  Book  of 
God,  as  1  Sam.  x.  25,  Esther  ix.  32,  and  in*  a  certain  sense. 
Job  xix.  23) — so  here  we  have,  concerning  the  visions  of  victory, 
in  the  highest  and  last  sense  of  the  word  (ch.  vi.  2,  xii.  7,  8), 
we  have  the  command  of  Him  who,  as  the  Last,  stands  and  will 
stand  above  the  dust  (Job  xix.  25,  in  the  right  translation)  to 
His  servant,  for  His  people — Write!  Kef  erring  to  all  that 
had  been  already  written  by  Divine  commission,  and  that  should 
yet  be  written  (St  John's  Gospel),  the  Lord  speaks  of  the  whole 
plan  of  a  Scripture  to  be  completed — now  from  heaven,  as 
formerly  upon  earth,  when  He  pointed  always  to  the  existing 
Scripture. 

St  John  heard  a  voice,  which  said — That  which  thou  seest. 

1  Guericke  observes,  upon  the  blending,  peculiar  to  this  book,  of  the  New 
Testament  epistolary  form  with  the  Old  Testament  prophetic  symbolical 
representations,  The  Lord  Himself  addresses  ciuslles  to  the  churches— and 
Avhat  letters  are  they ! 


REV.  I.  11,  17-20.  97 

The  trumpet-somid  had  terrified  him ;  but  he  could  not  other- 
wise than  obediently  listen,  as  long  as  the  voice  continued  to 
speak.  "\Mien  the  words  ceased,  and  not  till  then,  he  turns 
round,  not  from  his  own  impulse  but  in  obedience  still,  to  see 
that  which  he  was  to  see — that  is,  of  com'se,  Ilim  who  had 
spoken !  And  he  sees  the  Lord,  his  Lord,  on  whose  breast  he 
had  lain ;  whom  his  more  penetrating  soul  had  discerned,  when 
the  rest  discerned  Him  not,  after  the  resmTCction — It  is  the 
Lord!  (John  xxi.  7).  He  sees  Him  in  His  actual  verity,  as 
Stephen  and  Paul  had  seen  Him,  and  not  a  vision  representing 
Him ;  yet,  as  every  manifestation  of  the  Glorified  Redeemer  at 
the  right  hand  of  the  Father  must  necessarily  involve  some 
medium  of  softening  and  concealment  for  the  eyes  of  men,  this 
manifestation  to  St  John  (probably  the  first  to  him)  was  of  a 
peculiar  character.  The  glorious  appearance  is  smTounded  with 
all  kinds  of  figau'ative  investitm'e,  because  a  prophetic  series  of 
s^Tnbols  is  to  be  disclosed.  Stephen  beheld — as  was  appropriate 
in  his  circimistances — the  "  Son  of  Man  at  the  right  hand  of 
God,"  in  direct  vision,  as  it  were,  almost  after  the  manner  of 
the  future  beholding ;  but  to  the  receiver  of  the  Apocalyptic 
visions,  which  were  to  wind  up  the  book  of  Revelation  by 
retm'ning  back  to  Old  Testament  prophecy,  the  Lord  reveals 
Himself  as  He  did  to  Daniel :  hence  here  as  there  the  expres- 
sion. Like  to  the  So7i  of  Man.  As  in  the  midst  of  a  wonderful, 
heavenly  temple :  instead  of  the  one  seven-branched  candlestick 
in  the  old  sanctuaiy,  there  are  seven  aromid  Himself.  These 
candlesticks  are  first  beheld  by  the. Seer,  or,  he  mentions  them 
first,  because  all  that  was  to  be  beheld  and  recorded  should  find 
its  goal  in  the  Churches  which  they  signified.  In  an  assumed 
symbolical  form  and  investiture,  the  particulars  of  which  are 
aftervN^ards  again  introduced  for  explanation,  the  First-bom  from 
the  dead  shows  Himself  as  a  faithful  Witness :  never  should 
this,  and  what  else  is  exliibited  in  the  Revelation  to  be  written, 
have  been  undertaken  by  the  painter's  pencil !  The  Pligh- 
Priestly  and  Kingly  raiment  indicates,  in  condescension  to 
human  view.  His  dignity;  yet  the  talar,  which  clothes  Him  round, 
is  simpler  than  Aaron's  rich  variegated  vesture  ;  and  its  colour 
is  not  described,  only  that  the  most  dazzling  white  of  His  head 
is  distinguished  from  it.  It  may  be  self-understood,  that  the 
garment  was  only  of  resplendent  white.     The  gkding  yni\\  the 

6 


98  TO  ST  JOHN  IN  PATMOS. 

golden  girdle  around  the  breast  does  not  so  much  indicate  (as 
even  Bengel  supposes)  rest  after  labour,  as  generally  the  glorifi- 
cation of  the  lunnan  fomi,  which  is  thus  exhibited  in  a  nobler 
and  more  dignified  manner ;  for  (as  Ebrard  remarks),  the  dis- 
tinction betAveen  the  upper  and  lower  parts  of  the  body  is  thus 
done  away  with.  The  head  also  and  feet  exhibit  the  glorifica- 
tion of  the  Human ;  though  viewed  in  its  aspect  to  human  eyes. 
The  head  and  hairs  (scarcely  put  for  the  hairs  of  the  head) 
appear  here  in  the  Son  of  Man  like  as  in  the  Eternal,  Dan.  vii. 
9,  the  Ancient  of  Days,  before  whom  the  Son  of  ^lan  was 
brought.  In  His  eyes  bums  the  pure,  judicial  fire  of  the  holi- 
ness of  God.  The  metallic  brightness  of  His  feet  does  not 
refer  to  the  destructive  approach  of  the  INIighty  One,  under 
whose  footsteps  the  mountains  melt;  for,  it -is  not  the  burning 
fire  (any  more  than  the  burning  eyes)  which  is  here  involved, 
but  the  brightness,  as  the  connection  in  ch.  x.  1  establishes.  For 
the  rest,  it  is  quite  consistent  with  this,  that  afterwards  in  ch.  ii. 
18,  the  feet,  as  such,  indicate,  at  the  same  time,  the  approach  to 
judgment.  The  peculiar  Greek  expression  here  is  as  much  con- 
troverted by  the  learned,  as  the  mysterious  corresponding  word 
in  the  Hebrew,  Ezek.  i.  4.  The  voice  (that  is,  in  which  what 
followed  was  spoken  ;  as  St  John  miist  anticipate  the  entire  de- 
scription) must  be  interpreted  according  to  the  precedent  of 
Ezekiel  (ch.  i.  24,  xliii.  2 ;  comp.  Dan.  x.  6).  The  seven  stars 
in  His  right  hand,  corresponding  to  the  seven  candlesticks — 
scarcely  (as  ISIeyer  says)  like  precious  stones  in  rings  upon  His 
fingers — are  freely  suspended  on  or  over  it,  as  held  and  borne 
by  Him,  probably  shining  rather  in  a  circle.  We  must  restrain 
oiu'selves  from  any  specidations  which  go  beyond  the  text ;  it  is 
enough  that  we  have  afterwards  the  Lord's  own  interpretation 
of  these  figures.  Thus  we  must  understand  the  two-edged 
sxoord,  not  only  of  the  retributive  judicial  might  of  His  word 
(Isa.  xi.  4),  but  at  the  same  time  and  generally,  as  in  Isa  xlix.  2, 
and  Heb.  iv.  12,  of  its  judging  and  saving  power  in  the  Spirit 
(Eph.  vi.  17).  Finally,  His  countenance  shines  above  all  otlier 
brightness,  whether  of  His  snow-white  hair  or  of  His  darkly- 
glowing  feet,  like  the  sun  in  its  utmost  power.  Comp.  Judges 
V.  31 ;  Ps.  xix.  6.  The  whole  symbolical  manifestation  is 
exhibited  in  human,  earthly  points  of  resemblance ;  but  in 
this  form,  it  is  the  Lord  Himself,  the  Eternal  Living  One, 


EEV.  T.  11,  17-20.  99 

witli  fire  and  light  beaming  forth  from  His  heavenly  glorifica- 
tion, as  the  sequel  plainly  shows. 

The  bosom-clisciple,  who  had  been  an  Apostle  for  forty 
years,  the  most  confidential  and  familiar  friend  of  the  Lord  in 
His  present  spiritual  revelation,  as  well  as  in  His  former  earthly 
intercourse,  is  now,  when  he  beholds  the  well-known  comiten- 
ance  of  Jesus  his  Lord,  clothed  in  more  glory  than  the  sun,  cast 
down,  in  the  fear  of  nature,  recoiling  before  the  might  and 
majesty  of  God,  at  His  feet — as  one  dead !  Assuredly  it  was 
not  mere  fear  of  the  amazement  into  which  he  was  thrown  ;  but 
St  John,  in  his  trance,  experienced,  at  the  same  time,  a  rapture 
of  recognising  love,  and  sank  in  adoration  at  His  feet,  with  the 
perfect  consecration  of  His  whole  Hfe,  passing  beyond  all  fleshly 
limits.  Nevertheless,  the  fundamental  feeling — for  the  first 
word  of  the  Lord's  encom'agement  retains  its  truth — was  the 
fear  which  must  overwhelm  the  saints,  even  the  most  favoured 
of  them,  when  the  Divine  majesty  bursts  upon  and  around  them 
from  the  dread  secresy  of  the  other  world.  It  was  far  from 
being  the  full  glory  of  the  Son  of  Man,  not  to  be  beheld  by 
mortal  eye,  which  here  appeared — and  even  St  John,  still 
having  sin  in  him,  must  fail  before  it.  It  was  far  from  being 
the  full  power  of  the  Eternal  Spu'it,  of  eternal  life  in  God, 
which  breathed  upon  Him — and  even  he,  who  was  in  the  Spii'it, 
and  lived  in  the  Spii'it,  like  no  other  man,  must  after  the  flesh 
die  when  it  moves  upon  Him. 

And  He  laid  His  right  hand  upon  me — thus  writes  the  seer 
in  after  times — and  said :  Fear  not  ;  I  am  the  First  and 
THE  Last,  and  He  that  liveth.    And  I  was  dead  ;  and 

BEHOLD  I  A3I  ALIVE  FOR  EVERMORE,  AND  HAVE  THE  KEYS  OF 

DEATH  AND  OF  HELL.^  This  is  here  to  be  othenvise  understood 
than  in  the  former  passage,  ver.  8,  where  St  John,  after  the 
prophetic  manner,  followed  his  o^vn  testimony — Behold,  He 
corneth!  by  introducing  the  Lord  as  sajang,  by  His  servant's 
mouth,  7  am  AljjJia  and  Omega  !  It  is  now  the  immediate  voice 
of  the  Lord  from  heaven — from  whi.ch  the  Evangelist  had 
derived  those  previous  words.  Let  each  of  us  also  fall  at  His  feet, 
and  pray — Lord,  be  merciful,  and  reveal  Thyself  to  me !  who 
does  not  yet,  with  the  confidence  of  faith,  for  his  own  encour- 

^  The  Amen,  long  added  in  the  received  text,  is  not  authentic ;  though,  to 
many,  it  seems  confirmed  by  ch.  iii.  14. 


100  TO  ST  JOHN  IN  PATMOS. 

agement  in  living  and  dying,  know  Him,  the  Living  One,  who 
was  dead  for  us  children  of  death !  We  mourn  over  the  diy 
and  unfeeling  souls  who  can  bring  their  sophistical  criticisms  to 
such  words  as  these,  and  write  about  this  or  that  "  author,"  or 
"  Apocalyptist,"  having  here  given  a  specimen  of  his  high  style. 
It  is  not  the  style  of  a  man  which  is  here  concerned,  but  the  most 
sublime  utterance  of  the  Divine-human  personal  Lord  Jesus — 
rising  to  a  higher  grandeur  than  they  have  ever  assumed  before, 
even  in  His  words  from  heaven.  The  sublimity  of  the  words, 
taken  as  a  whole,  and  in  their  ineffable  combination,  using  clear 
human  language  concerning  time  and  eternity,  living  and  dj-ing, 
in  the  great  and  unparalleled  testimony  to  that  only  /  which  has 
not  its  fellow — can  scarcely  be  otherwise  than  marred  by  any 
exposition  which  they  may  receive.  Yet,  many  may  require  a 
finger-sign  to  j)oint  the  way  for  their  meditation. 

Once  more,  the  last  time  in  Holy  Writ  (for  ch.  ii.  10  is 
something  different),  the  primitive  and  ever-new  word  of  God 
to  the  children  of  men — Fear  not  !  ^  This  goes  beyond  that 
of  Matt.  xvii.  7,  at  the  preliminar}^  vision  of  the  transfiguration. 
He  who  now  speaks  had  long  since  accomplished  his  exodus 
through  death  unto  life  at  Jerusalem,  and  had  gone  up,  at  the 
Mount  of  Olives,  to  the  right  hand  of  the  ^lajesty  on  High ; 
but  He  now  looks  down,  as  the  Lord  who  is  the  Spirit,  in  the 
glorified.  Divinity-pervaded  corporeity  of  His  human  being, 
upon  those  who  still  have  the  gloomy  gates  of  death  before 
them.  We  may  thus  separate  the  words  in  the  exposition  :  "  I 
AM  He,  the  First  and  the  Last" — and  then  we  should  expect 
the  words  of  the  risen  Lord  to  be  repeated,  "  I  Avho  was  dead 
and  now  Hve !  "  But,  before  He  thus  speaks.  He  utters  here  a 
still  loftier  word,  which  testifies  His  eternal  Godhead  before, 
and  in  His  humanity.  He  who,  in  the  flesh,  said  to  the  blas- 
jDheming  Jews,  "Before  Abraham  was,  I  am" — and,  in  His 
prayer  to  His  Father,  spake  of  the  glory  which  He  had  with 
Him  before  the  world  was,  yet  had  never  said,  "  I  am  God" — 
now  at  last  utters  that^*eat  word,  in  the  saying  of  God  by  the 
Prophet  Isaiah,  "  I  am  the  First,  and  I  am  the  Last,  and  beside 
Me  there  is  no  God! "  (Ch.  -xliv.  6,  xlviii.  12),  or,  "And  Avith 

*  Twenty-one  times  (three  times  seven)  we  have  counted  it,  as  a  direct 
address,  iu  the  Old  Testament ;  and  nine  times  (tlu-ee  times  three),  in  the 

New. 


REV.  I.  11,  17-20.  101 

tlie  last  still  the  same ! "  (Cli.  iv.  1-4).     For,  tlie  speech  of  this 
final  Kevelation  is  to  be  mostly  taken  from  the  old  prophets. 

The  First  and  the  Last,  and  He  that  liveth  !  This  once 
more  goes  beyond  the  prophetic  definition  of  the  sole  eternal 
Godhead,  in  a  most  sublime,  most  profomid,  and,  at  the  same 
time,  most  intelHgibly  consoling  expression.  "The  Living- 
God  "  often  occm's  in  the  Old  Testament ;  only  in  Gen.  xvi.  14 
(xxiv.  62,  XXV.  11)  does  it  approach,  though  without  reaching, 
the  absolute  soleness  of  the  idea  as  here  used :  compare  its  ex- 
pansion in  Rev.  iv.  9,  10,  x.  6.  "The  eternity  of  God  is  a 
living  eternity.  He  is  not  the  Absolute,  because  He  is  the  most 
abstract,  but  because  He  is  the  most  concrete — the  personal  God, 
who  has  a  heart,  who  is  Love,  and,  therefore,  the  fife  and  the 
som'ce  of  fife  to  aU.  The  Living  killeth  not  that  which  Hveth  : 
therefore  John  need  not  fear."  ^  The  same  Living  One  here, 
who,  incarnate  in  Christ,  "SVAS  dead,  and  had  risen  again  to  an 
eternal  life  of  God,  in  this  /  which  here  speaks,  in  the  hmnan 
person  of  Jesus  Christ.  As  He  was  the  living  from  eternity, 
before  the  incarnation,  so  now — Behold,  I  am  alive  for  ever,  TO 
iVEL  ETERNITY.  This  present  saving  reaches  higher,  and  has  a 
more  Godlike  distinctness,  than  that  former  one — 1  am  tlie  Re- 
surrection and  the  Life — although  the  former  was  involved  and 
included  in  the  latter.  Behold,  behold,  Jesus  Christ  is  not  a 
personage  who  has  existed,  who  is  gone  beyond  the  limits  of 
humanity ;  as,  alas,  many  think,  who  know  not  the  Living  God, 
and  dare  to  speak  of  Him  as  of  other  children  of  men.  The 
personal  continuance  in  being  of  every  man  who  has  once  lived 
and  is  dead,  is  taken  for  granted  here  as  the  least  thing ;  and 
then,  the  sole  supremacy  of  this  Fu'st  One  before  the  creation  of 
the  world,  who  was  dead  and  Hveth,  His  inalienable  Divine  life, 
is  fully  sealed.  But  He  also  liveth  it,  as  He  was  dead  accord- 
ing to  the  flesh  of  His  human  natm'e,  in  glorified  flesh,  in  full 
and  entu'e  human-personal  bodiliness ;  whereas,  even  the  saved, 
who  live  with  God,  are  still  dead  till  the  resmTection  of  the 
body,  which  alone  will  restore  them  to  perfect  life  (ch.  xiv.  13, 
XX.  5).  Rothe  misses  the  point  of  this  passage,  when,  at  the 
end  of  his  other-svise  beautiful  sermons  upon  it,  he  asserts  of 
Christ,  that  "  He  no  longer  works  by  the  instrument  of  a  sen- 

^  TVe  gladly  accept  tliis  beautiful  sentence  of  Ebrard,  more  especially  as 
we  so  often  find  occasion  to  contradict  him. 


102  TO  ST  JOHN  IX  PATMOS. 

suous  nature,  but  by  the  energy  of  His  spiritual  nature  and  its 
organs,  now  consummated  in  Him  ;  by  the  energy  of  His  Holy 
Spirit."  This  marvellous  doctrine  of  the  reduction  of  the  body 
into  mere  spirit,  is  not  the  Scriptural  doctrine  of  the  resurrec- 
tion and  the  risen  Lord:  there  is  a  third  between  sensuous 
nature  and  mere  spirit ;  the  spirit-penetrated,  glorified  corporeity, 
in  virtue  of  which  flesh  and  blood,  in  and  besides  the  sacra- 
ment, are  the  "  organs  "  of  the  operation  of  Jesus ;  and  thus  the 
Living  One  communicates  His  life,  even  to  their  incorporation 
in  Him,  to  those  who  otherwise  have  no  life  (John  vi.) 

It  is  on  the  Lord's  day  tliat  the  self -manifesting  Lord  first 
gives  His  testimony  to  His  resurrection  from  the  dead.  The 
Living  One  is  no  object  of  fear  to  His  disciple ;  and  the  allusion 
to  the  death  of  atonement  and  conquest  still  more  effectually 
dissipates  His  fear.  As  among  the  unbelievers,  they  speak  of  a 
certain  dead  Jesus  whom  the  disciples  maintain  to  be  alive 
(Acts  XXV.  19) — so  speaks  He  Himself  in  this  final  testimony, 
which  was  to  be  a  delaration  in  Scripture  tto  all  unbelievers  fpr 
ever,  first  of  all  of  His  having  been  dead  and  of  His  living.  I 
WAS  DEAD — that  includes  not  merely  the  body,  but  the  entire 
human  person ;  embraces  His  descent  into  the  kingdom  of  the 
dead,  into  hell ;  and  to  this,  therefore,  is  attached  the  word  of 
the  Conqueror — and  have  the  keys  of  death  and  of  hell. 
Wliat  death  and  what  hell  (comp.  ch.  vi.  8,  xx.  13)  mean  in 
Scriptm'e,  we  cannot  now,  upon  the  exposition  of  this  word, 
fmidamentally  and  from  the  beginning  expound.  Death,  as 
the  personified  ruler  of  destruction,  comes  first ;  and  then  is 
added  his  domain  and  kingdom  :  both  in  their  combination  form 
the  double  expression,  so  frightful  to  the  children  of  men,  for 
tlie  final  and  really  existing  object  of  their  inmost  fear.  Christ 
has  the  keys  of  the  kingdom  of  death,  the  might  of  which,  on 
accomit  of  the  cm-se  of  sin,  shuts  in  and  holds  fast  all :  He  has 
opened,  and  can  open ;  He  alone  can  deliver  thence  and  set  free ; 
as  Pie  now  is  the  Lord  over  the  dead  and  the  living,  and  seals 
His  dominion.  (Rom.  xiv.  9.)  But  now  to  St  John  He  refers 
only  to  His  having  the  keys ;  He  docs  not  make  them  visible  in 
His  hand,  which  rather  holds  in  it  those  who  have  been  won  from 
death,  the  angels  of  the  Churches,  victoriously  as  shining  stars. 

In  this  most  essential  word  of  introduction  and  explanation 
for  the  final  revelations,  before  the  command  to  write  recurs, 


KEV.  I.  11,  17-20.  103 

the  sum  of  the  "whole  Gospel  for  raanldnd  is  condensed  in  the 
person  of  Christ: — O  that  it  may  be  a  living  faith  in  ns! 
Behold,  a  man  like  thyself,  dead  like  thyself,  who  has  been 
among  the  dead,  and  is  now  eternally  living  and  giving  life — 
behold.  He  it  is  in  whom  it  is  an  eternal  truth  and  reality, 
though  a  bouiidless  mystery,  that  the  true  God  hath  given 
Himself  to  death  for  thee,  lost  man.  Say  to  Him,  with  St 
Thomas  and  St  John,  in  the  faith  which  He  Himself  demands 
and  offers — My  Lord  and  my  God !  and  then  thou  shalt,  with- 
out fear,  secure  from  death  and  hell,  become  partaker  of  His 
life  and  of  His  glor}?-,  even  to  all  eternity ! 

And  now,  after  the  great  "  I  am ! "  had  announced  Him  as 
the  Utterer  of  that  first  voice,  the  first  commandment  is  resumed 
from  it,  to  write  that  ivhich  was  seen — the  writing  now  taldng 
the  first  place  in  the  sentence.     Weite,  therefore,^  the 

THINGS  AVniCH  THOU  HAST  SEEN,  AND  THE  THINGS  WHICH 
ARE,  AND    THE    THINGS   WHICH   SHALL  BE  HEREAFTER.      This 

triple  description,  which  first  of  all  excites  attention  to  the  compre- 
hensive perfectness  and  most  certain  reality  of  the  contents  of  the 
Book  to  be  written,  may  be  understood  according  to  the  three  di- 
mensions of  time :  What  thou  hast  hitherto  seen  (the  glorious 
manifestation  described  from  ver.  12  onwards) — the  things  which 
now  are,  and  which  are  disclosed  with  an  "  I  know,"  must  also 
be  set  down  by  thee,  that  is,  the  condition  of  these  present 
chm'ches  as  exliibited  in  the  Epistles,  chs.  ii.  and  iii. — and  the 
tilings  wdiich  shall  be  hereafter,  as  they  are  typically  involved  in 
these  Epistles,  and  as  they  will  be  seen  in  all  the  following 
visions,  down  to  the  new  Jerusalem,  on  the  new  earth,  under  the 
new  heaven,  down  to  the  eternally  decisive,  ^^ Blessed  are" — 
"  But  without  are  !  "  This  would  give,  in  a  certain  sense,  three 
divisions  of  the  Book,  unequal,  indeed,  as  to  their  extent,  but  in 
their  substance,  strictly  corresponding  to  each  other :  first,  the 
appearance  of  the  living  Lord — then  His  seven  Epistles — then 
the  continuous  epistle  of  what  remained  to  be  shown  T^vith 
which  ch.  iv.  1  might  agree).  This  would,*at  the  same  time, 
involve  the  thought,  that  what  was  to  happen  would  go  on  in 
the  immediate  process  of  development  (shortly,  ver.  1),  from 
the  then  circumstances  of  the  Church  as  symbolically  exhibited 
by  the  seven  chm'ches.  We  will  not  reject  this  exposition,  but 
1  The  oh,  wliich  Luther  omits,  thus  obtains  its  emphasis. 


104  ST  JOHN  IN  PATMOS. 

rather  hold  it  fast,  as  demonstrative  against  every  false  view 
which  would  discover  in  the  revelation  of  St  John,  not  the 
whole  of  progressive  history,  but  merely  the  things  in  the  far 
future  which  will  take  place  immediately  before  the  Lord's 
coming.  Still,  as  the  pregnant  language  of  prophecy  admits 
often  of  more  than  one  interpretation,  we  would  also  more 
simply  understand,  by  tlie  triple  description  (as  probably  St 
John  did,  before  his  deeper  j)enetration  into  the  word),  a  merely 
parallel  description  of  the  same  thing.  "  The  things  which  thou 
hast  seen" — may  comprehensively  mean  (in  harmony  with  ver. 
11)  only,  "  Wliat  thou  now,  and  from  this  time  seest."  But 
that  which  is  shovioi  to  the  Seer  to  see,  is  no  phantasm  of  a 
dream  or  poetical  invention.  It  is  most  absolute  reality  in  the 
condition  and  process  of  things  upon  earth,  as  also  before  the 
counsel  of  God  in  heaven,  especially  after  the  revelation  here 
of  the  otherwise  secret  powers  and  energies  which  operate  iipon 
this  world  from  the  other :  hence,  "  thou  shalt  see  the  things 
tohich  are  !  "  But,  finally,  this  that  was  seen  and  already  ex- 
isting, refers  collectively,  not  so  much  to  the  then  present,  as 
to  the  things  which  should  come  to  pass  from  that  time  onwards 
— so  that  "hereafter"  is  not  opposed  to  the  preceding  "things 
that  now  are,"  but  is  no  other  than  merely  the  prophetic  ex- 
pression for  the  Future.  Thus,  similarly,  the  third  is  only  a 
designation  of  the  whole,  Avith  which  ch.  i.  1  and  iv.  1,  and  also 
the  corresponding  conclusion,  would  better  agree.  And  it  is  easy 
to  see  that  the  former  interjDretation,  which  lays  stress  on  the 
connection  with  the  2:)resent  and  development  from  it,  is  in- 
cluded in  this  :  the  reality  of  the  visions  of  the  future  (as  we 
may  most  briefly  combine  the  three  expressions  in  their  true 
meaning),  indeed,  presupposes  the  development  of  the  future 
from  the  present.  There  is  no  other  actual  future  than  that ; 
therefore,  there  is  no  other  prophecy  than  that  which  connects 
itself  with,  develops,  and  tyi^ically  sets  out  from,  what  already 
is — thus  showing  what,  though  it  has  yet  to  come  to  pass, 
exists  noio  in  God's  counsel,  and  to  the  opened  eyes  of  the  Seer, 
who  beholds  internal  and  external  realities. 

This  view  of  the  previous  sentence  most  appropriatelyprepares 
the  way  for  its  continuation,  which  at  once  sets  out  with  an  inter- 
pretation of  the  figures  which  had  been  seen  in  their  reality,  with 
an  explanation  of  the  typical  meaning  of  the  seven  churches 


KEV.  I.  11,  17-20.  105 

first-named.  We  may  either  take  it  as  in  tlie  accusative,  fol- 
lowing the  sentence  before — "  Write  the  mystery,"  etc. ;  or 
regard  it  as  a  new  sentence — "The  mystery  of  what  thou  saw- 
est  is  as  follows :  the  seven  stars  are"  etc.  The  sense,  in  both 
cases,  is  the  same,  and  the  w^ords  run  :  The  mystery  of  the 

SEVEN  STARS  WHICH  THOU  SAWEST  IN  My  RIGHT  HAND,  AND 
THE  SEVEN  GOLDEN  CANDLESTICKS.-^  ThE  SEVEN  STARS  ARE 
THE  ANGELS  OF  THE  SEVEN  CHURCHES;  AND  THE  SEVEN 
CANDLESTICKS  ARE  THE  SEVEN  CHURCHES. 

The  significance  of  the  number  Seven  in  Scripture  is  well 
known.  Although  stamped  upon  sound,  and  light,  and  other 
patterns  of  things  heavenly  upon  earth,  it  belongs,  with  the 
number  Three,  essentially  to  the  upper  kingdom;  and  has 
in  cheated,  ever  since  the  festival  of  the  seventh  day  at  the  end 
of  creation,  "the  number  of  the  perfection  of  Divine  possibilities." 
The  TAvelve,  the  Forty,  or  Thirty,  on  the  other  hand,  correspond 
rather  to  the  creatm^ely  in  itself ;  and  this  will  at  once  teach 
us  w^hy  the  'perfect  manifoldness  of  the  New  Testament  people 
of  God,  the  Lord's  Church,  the  Ticelve-^mmher  of  which  is  also 
found  afterwards  in  the  Apocalypse,  and  seen  in  the  New  Jeru- 
salem, is  here  at  first  exhibited  in  tlie  Lord's  own  presence  in 
His  sacred  number  Seven.  Liasfar  as  the  Lord's  peojjle  is 
derived,  and  grows,  and  becomes,  from  the  ground  of  the 
creature,  it  is  unfolded  in  twelve  stems,  and  enters,  finally, 
through  twelve  gates  into  the  Jerusalem  of  the  new  creation. 
But,  inasfar  as  the  Lord's  Church,  lighted  by  His  light,  shines 
in  His  temple  and  sanctuary  from  the  beginnmg  before  Him, 
it  is  exhibited  in  the  seven  churches.  To  this  corresponds  a 
historical  and  eternal  reality ;  but  whether  the  Twelve  and  Seven 
have,  in  any  sense,  a  literal  value,  or  are  only  symbolical  num- 
bers for  more  or  less  manifoldness  in  unity,  will  be  easily 
decided,  as  it  respects  at  least  the  Seven,  by  the  specially 
directed  Epistles. 

That  the  seven  candlesticks,  as  the  extension  and  unfolding 
of  the  seven-branched  candlestick  in  the  old  sanctuary,  and 
mentioned  first  in  ver.  12,  are  the  foundation  of  the  wdiole  sym- 
bolism in  this  place,  is  quite  clear.     Originally  corresponding 

1  Instead  of  "and  of  the  seven" — for  the  candlesticks  seen  are  themselves 
also  the  mystery.  Such  incorrectness  of  language,  and  change  of  construc- 
tion, are  designedly  and  significantly  freq^uent  in  the  Apocalypse. 


106  TO  ST  JOHN  IN  PATMOS. 

to  the  sexen  spirits  of  God  (cli.  i,  4,  iii.  1,  iv.  5,  v.  6),  tliey  then 
represent  those  which  are  enlightened  and  kindled  by  the  one 
Spirit  in  His  manifoldness ;  just  as  the  shewbread  represented 
the  people  prepared  by  God's  nourishment,  and  placed  before 
His  presence  as  acceptable.  Kow,  because  these  candlesticks, 
standing  before  the  Lord  in  His  light  (nevertheless,  according 
to  the  inAvardness  of  the  New  Testament,  not  so  much  before 
Him  and  He  far  over  against  them,  but  He  being  in  their 
midst),  are  already,  in  some  degree,  intelligible  to  St  John  from 
the  Old  Testament,  their  special  signification  is  reserved  for  the 
close ;  first  comes  now  the  therewith  connected  seven  stars,  the 
mystery  ^  of  which  pre\aously  required  explanation.  We  learn 
what  they  mean  from  the  fact  that,  elsewhere  in  the  Old  arid 
New  Scriptm-es,  the  kingdom  of  God  upon  earth,  the  heavenly 
kingdom,  is  compared  with,  or  likened  to,  the  upper  heaven. 
We  could  not,  and  would  not,  -^Tite  here  a  treatise  on  Biblical 
t}^5ology  and  symbolism,  and  miist  content  om'selves  with  the 
most  concise  interpretation.  When  the  Lord,  in  Matt.  xxiv.  29, 
'  speaks  in  the  language  of  the  Old  Testament  of  the  "  heaven- 
church,"  the  stars  in  that  heaven  are  no  other  than  "  the  heads 
of  the  congregation,  and  teachers" — for  which  Dan.  viii.  10, 11, 
and  fm-ther  Eev.  vi.  13,  viii.  12,  xii.  1-4,  may  be  compared.^ 
As,  in  the  above  passage  "  host  of  heaven "  (which  expression 
itself  thus  occurs  in  a  double  meaning),  the  stars  correspond  to 
the  angels  (Job  xxxviii.  7),  as  their  domain  and  dwelling,  this 
simply  of  itself  decides  who  the  angels  of  the  churches  in  our 
lower,  reflected  chm'ch-heaven  must  be :  they  can  be  only  human 
persons  typically  described  by  this  name.  It  is  not  necessary 
to  have  recom'se  to  learned  parallels  from  the  constitution  of 
the  Jewish  synagogue,^  nor  to  think  of  messengers,  appointed 
officials  of  the  then  existing  Asiatic  churches.*     But  no  more 

^  'Mvar'/ipiov,  in  apocalyptic  language,  is  equivalent  to  'iJ^"?  — secret  sense 
of  the  letter ;  comp.  ch.  xvii.  6. 

2  See  on  the  passage  of  St  Matthew,  in  the  "  Words  of  the  Lord  Jesus," 
vol.  iii. 

3  As  that  oiyyi-KH  etymologically  corresponds  to  the  oflScial  who  led  the 
prayers,  who  was  called  "ii^is  tT'Vf  • 

^  As  Ebrard,  from  ignorance  of  the  typical  relation  between  angels  and 
stars,  has  erred.  It  seems  to  us  impossible  that  the  meaning  "  ambas- 
sadors," which  only  first  occurs  elsewhere  in  the  New  Testament,  should  be 
the  meaning  in  this  book,  which  speaks  so  much  of  dyyiMt;  as  angels 


IlEV.  I.  11,  17-20.  107 

must  we  spiritualise  in  a  manner  M'liicli  is  out  of  harmony  with 
the  entire  character  of  the  Apocal)q)se,  and  make  them  poetical 
personifications  of  the  Church  and  it-<^  common  spirit ! !  The 
important  question,  whether,  at  that  early  period,  one  of  the 
presbjyters  had  the  pre-eminent  place  as  bishop,  is  easily  settled 
if  we  remember  that  the  angel,  or  president,  or  leader  of  the 
chm'ch  here  singled  out  by  the  Lord — that  is,  that  one  personality 
in  whom  the  spirit  and  temper  of  the  church  was  represented 
and  most  perfectly  impressed — by  no  means  must  be  regarded 
as  bearing  an  official  title  pre-eminent  over  the  rest.  Suffice, 
that  every  congregation  had — so  far  as  it  is  here  viewed  as  one 
whole,  characteristically  and  pecidiarly  isolated — as  its  own 
specific  character,  so  also  some  one  personal  representative  of 
that  character.  In  the  college  of  the  elders  there  was  certainly 
everywhere  one  who  was  prominent,  without  priority  of  rank, 
and  who  was  well  loiown  by  that  preponderance,  at  least  to  Apos- 
tohcal  eyes.  And  if  even  this  had  not  been  the  case,  the  Lord 
might  have  sho-^m  to  the  Apostle  whom  He  meant,  and  to  whom 
the  letter  was  to  be  sent ;  though  this,  as  not  being  of  import- 
ance to  futmity,  and  therefore  a  subordinate  matter,  was  not 
to  be  v.Titten  in  the  book,  any  more  than  the  names  of  these 
"angels"  generally.  Thus,  we  understand  these  angels  of  the 
chm'ches  to  be  persons  who  stood  before  the  Lord's  view  as  the 
representative  leaders  of  the  Chm'cli,  with  or  without  prominent 
office,  but  in  prominent  spuitual  position,  and,  therefore,  as- 
smned  to  be  the  receivers  of  that  which  was  to  be  said  to  the 
Church.^  They  are  by  no  means  collectively  the  "teaching 
order,"  or,  "  the  eldership,"  or  anything  of  the  Idnd,  but  actual 
individual  persons.  Not  therefore,  however,  "  quasi-guardian 
The  fiction  that  messengers  came  to  John  in  Patmos,  to  whom  the  epistles 
v.'ere  to  be  committed,  is  most  inappropriate  for  the  seeing  of  the  things 
which  actually  are,  and  introduces  something  commonplace  for  the  explana- 
tion of  the  mystery.  Finally,  who  could  ever  say — ^Write  to  the  mes- 
sengers who  wiU  carry  the  epistle  ;  instead  of — to  those  to  whom  it  was  to 
be  carried!'  That  in  every  epistle  the  messenger  himself  is-addi-essed  in- 
stead of  the  church,  is  not  so  "  natural "  as  it  is  assumed  to  be,  even  if  he 
was  viewed  as  a  representative  of  the  presbytery. 

1  In  this  we  quite  agree  with  ZeUer  (Monatsbl.  Beuggen.  1848)  :  "  that 
predominant  (single  or  collective)  teaching  or  ruling  personality,  whose 
spirit,  example,  and  work  exerted  a  main  influence  upon  the  spiritual  con- 
dition of  their  church  and  their  time,  and  which  figured  the  chui-ch  either 
in  a  good  or  evil  sense." 


108  TO  ST  JOHN  IN  PATMOS. 

angels"  of  the  churches,  since  their  tjq^ical  designation  as 
angels  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  idea  of  guardianship ;  but,  in 
the  profound  and  yet  simple  allusion,  the  significance  of  the 
spiritual  and  ecclesiastical  ruling  ministers  of  the  Lord  in  His 
congregation,  the  true  heads  and  princes  of  the  Church,  so 
regarded  and  esteemed  by  Himself,  was  to  be  shadowed  out  by 
these  angels  of  the  churches,  which,  indeed,  is,  and  must  ever 
be,  a  mystery. 

And  now,  finally,  for  the  seven  churches  themselves.  It  is 
certain  at  the  outset  that  the  interpretation  of  the  mystery  can- 
not be  restricted  to  those  seven  churches  then  existing  in  Asia 
Minor.  Certainly  St  John,  according  to  ver.  4,  sent  to  these 
"  seven  churches  in  Asia'^  the  whole  book,  with  the  seven 
Epistles  at  the  head  of  it.  This  was  according  to  the  command 
which  he  received,  ver.  11 ;  when,  however,  as  a  kind  of  hint  of 
another  signification  of  these  names  and  addresses,  the  geogi'aphi- 
cal  note  "  in  Asia"  is  not  found.^  But  here  in  ver.  20,  where 
the  Lord  interprets  the  whole  typical  symbolism  of  His  first 
manifestation,  even  the  article  is  wanting,  according  to  the 
best  reading,  and  it  runs  :  The  seven  candlesticks  are  seven 
churches.  Again,  afterwards  in  the  Ej)istles,  the  sevenfold  ap- 
peal calls  upon  him  that  hath  an  ear  to  hear  what  the  Spirit 
saith  unto  the  churches — the  seven-number  beino;  wantino-  and 
"  the  churches"  signifying  simply — The  entire  Church  of  the 
Lord.  Accordingly,  we  must  admit  that  there  is  a  symbolical 
principle  of  interpretation  underlying  the  whole,  however  diffi- 
cult it  may  be  to  apply  that  principle  to  the  individual  cases. 
And  the  Book,  as  ch.  i.  1  in  its  superscription  says,  is  from 
the  beginning  (and  not  merely  from  ch.  iv.  1  onwards)  ^^ro- 
phetic  for  the  future.  How  would  the  seven  churches  be  a 
mystery,  if  nothing  was  prophesied  under  their  several  names  ?  ^ 
How  would  "they  then  correspond  to  the  seven  candlesticks,  in 
the  midst  of  which  the  Lord  walked  (which  presently  is  men- 
tioned agaiji,  ch.  ii.  1),  and  their  angels  to  the  seven  stars  ? 
For  the  Lord  dwells  in  the  midst  of  His  whole  Church,  and 

^  It  is  found  in  Luther's  translation,  following  an  incorrect  reading. 

-  Steinheil  (Glances  into  the  Apocalypse,  Basel,  1857)  observes  that  the 
text  does  not  say  so.  But  it  most  surely  does  !  Bengel,  who  with  all  his 
penetration  sometimes  strikingly  fails,  very  erroneously  refers  the  "mys- 
tery "  only  to  the  stars  ! 


REV.  I.  11,  17-20.  109 

holds  all  its  "  angels,"  in  all  lands  and  in  all  times,  in  His  hand. 
Thus,  most  incontrovertibly,  as  we  have  above  expounded,  this 
number  Seven  of  the  congregation  is  not  alone  a  typical  coun- 
terpart to  the  Twelve  of  the  tribes,  but  it  is  here  placed  first  in 
the  prophetical  perspective, — a  prophetic  type  of  that  which 
was  to  take  place  in  the  succession  of  time ;  while,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  twelve  tribes  indicate  only  the  manifoldness  of  the 
people  of  God  in  their  unity.  We  may  in  a  certain  sense  com- 
pare with  this  the  seven  parables  in  Matt,  xiii.,  placed  in  a 
similar  prophetic  background;  only  that  now,  in  the  present 
much  more  perfect  development  of  the  Church,  containing  the 
evident  germ  of  all  the  future,  the  prophecy  is  incomparably 
more  special,  concrete,  and  plain. 

The  historical  basis  is  the  actual  position  and  character 
of  a  selected  number  of  the  churches  of  Asia  ISiinor,  that  district 
where  St  John  had  followed  in  the  footsteps  of  the  Apostle  of 
the  Gentiles,  the  preparer  of  the  way,  regulating  all  its  affairs 
from  Ephesus  as  a  centre.^  Eich  life  was  there,  but  also  per- 
version and  corruption  commencing  and  actual ;  war  of  the 
Spirit  A\'ith  the  flesh ;  conflict  of  the  Church  of  the  Lord  with 
the  world  and  its  Prince,  in  all  stages  of  victory  or  commencing 
fall.  For  even  apostolical  power  and  vigilance  were  not  suffi- 
cient to  release  the  Church  of  the  beginning  from  the  process 
of  development  in  hrmian  freedom ;  even  the  Apostolical  Church, 
in  this  immediately  following  stage,  which  we  may  term  the 
Johanngean,  bore  in  it,  concurrently  with  its  strength  of  faith  and 
faithfulness  of  love,  the  beginnings  and  types  of  all  future 
apostasy  and  corruption,  down  to  the  Laodicean  lukewarmness 
of  the  last  days.  For  this,  the  territory  of  the  chui'ch  of  Asia 
jMinor,  so  variously  made  up  of  peculiar  characteristics,  was  a 
most  apt  and  appropriate  emblem ;  and  hence  it  was  the  his- 
torically existing,  and  not  arbitrarily  chosen,  type  of  all  the 
future. 

It  follows  from  all  this,  as  indeed  from  the  fact  of  these 
Epistles  being  sent  to  these  churches,  that  the  words  of  praise 
and  censm^e,  of  consolation  and  exliortation,  which  were  appro- 
priately addressed  to  each  of  them,  will  approve  themselves 
applicable   in    all    similar    cii'cumstances   of    the    progressive 

^  Israel  retires  for  a  season  altogether  into  the  ground  of  Gentile  Cluis- 
tianity,  for  the  scope  and  aim  of  the  Apocalypse.  V 


110  TO  ST  JOHN  IX  PATMOS. 

Cliurch.  This  is  even  the  plain  and  obvious  meaning  which 
the  Holy  Ghost,  in  this  relatively  very  comprehensible  intro- 
duction of  the  dark  book  of  prophecy,  suggests  to  all  indivi- 
dual souls.  The  churches  which  rise  successively  are  in  some 
sense  always  simultaneou.sly  existent  also,  though  not  always 
stamped  so  distinctively  as  in  these  seven  types, — even  as  "in- 
visible heart-churches,"  as  Meyer  expresses  it.  Nevertheless, 
this  does  not  exclude  the  fact,  that  these  characteristics  and  main. 
features  of  the  development  are  exhibited  in  the  periods  of 
chiu'ch-history,  and  that  to  point  to  this  in  the  background  is 
the  main  design  of  the  prophetic  word — as  in  the  case  of  the 
seven  parables  it  was  but  involuntary,  so  to  speak,  and  sub- 
ordinate. For,  as  we  said  there,  the  history  of  the  Church  is 
no  other  than  the  Chm'ch's  progressively-developed  doctrine 
concerning  itself,  its  own  revelation ;  so  we  may  here  still  more 
distinctly  assert  that  the  stages  and  forms  of  the  development 
which  exhibit  to  us  in  miniatiu'e  its  condition  in  its  course 
through  time,  are  stamped  with  historical  necessity  upon  that 
course  on  the  greatest  scale. 

The  Lord's  glance,  everywhere  having  the  ground  and  the 
final  consummation  in  view,  beheld  in  these  seven  churches  of 
Asia  Minor — though  thei'e  were  other  and  not  insignificant 
churches  there — a  complete  and  self-contained  symbolical  circle. 
There  were  many  various  elements  intermingled,  as  we  shall 
see,  in  each  individual  example ;  yet  in  each  there  is  most  evi- 
dently a  fundamental  feature,  a  main  characteristic.  Every 
Epistle  is  comprised  under  the  same  *fom'fdld  arrangement : 
"  What  saith,"  with  a  title  of  the  Lord  coming  first ; — "  I  know 
thy  works,"  with  a  disclosure  of  its  condition,  and  praise  or 
blame  ; — exhortation,  consolation,  threatening,  variously  ex- 
pressed;— finally,  in  each  case,  the  promise  for  hearing  ears  to 
him  that  overcorneth  :  — and  this  uniformity  will  make  the  variety 
all  the  more  intelligible.  Each  several  title  of  the  Lord  at  the 
beginning  borrows  something  from  the  preceding  manifestation, 
though  not  following  the  precise  order  of  the  description ;  even 
the  "keys"  of  ch.  iii.  7  looks  back  to  ch.  i.  18,  as  the  compre- 
hensive name  to  the  seventh,  ch.  iii.  14,  looks  back  in  its  meaning 
to  the  whole.  Only  the  voice  and  the  face  are  appropriately 
left  not  mentioned  again  by  the  writer  of  the  Epistles.  The 
concluding  promises  point  back  directly,  in  the  first  four,  to  the 


REV.  I.  11,   17-20.  Ill 

ancient  Scriptures,  and  in  order  :  to  the  tree  of  life  in  Paradise; 
deatli  (although  now  the  second  death !) ;  the  manna  of  the  desert; 
and  David's  tj^pical  kingdom.  They  then  leave  this  course,  and 
exliibit  an  ever  more  nearly  ajyproximating  appearance  of  the 
Lord  as  Judge.  From  the  beginning  it  was  almost  everj'where 
— I  will  come  (ch.  ii.  5,  16,  25)  ;  but  in  the  last  three  it  comes 
strikingly  nearer  and  nearer:  read  together  ch.  iii.  ver.  3-5, 
ver.  10-12,  ver.  20,  21.  This  last  observation  refutes  the  notion 
of  Ebrard,  that  only  the  first  four  "chui'chdoms"  are  in  historical 
sequence,  and  that  the  last  three  will  appear  at  once  in  the  end. 

The  reader  may  expect,  after  this  necessary  exposition  of 
ch.  i.  20,  as  an  inevitable  introduction  to  the  seven  Epistles,  that 
we  should  give  our  own  exclusively  prophetic  interpretation  ; 
but  this  we  are  not  inclined  to  do.  This  book  is  intended 
rather  for  edification,  than  for  the  assistance  of  a  few  to  find 
the  depths  of  knowledge  which  are  only  to  a  few  attainable. 
ISIoreover,  we  must  confess  that  we  have  not  attained  to  any 
absolutely  sure  imderstanding ;  in  all  previous  interpretations, 
not  excepting  those  which  have  been  thoroughly  versed  in  Scrip- 
ture and  in  histoiy,  we  have  found  some  coinciding  commence- 
ments of  presentiment  indeed,  but  no  established  and  irrefragable 
conclusions.  Bengel,  it  is  well  known,  maintained  that  the 
seven  churches  have  no  prophetical  moaning,  and  Hofmann 
denies  any  such  meaning,  at  least  for  the  whole  of  chm'ch 
history ;  we  think  otherwise,  as  already  hinted,  but  do  not  pre- 
sume to  expound  the  Spirit's  mystery  as  already  known.  It  is 
not  our  vocation  to  add  one  more  to  the  abundant  chronological 
tables  of  the  corresponding  periods  in  chm'ch  history,  certainly 
not  to  contend  on  such  a  question  as  this. 

Thus  much,  however,  is  plain  to  our  apprehension  on  a 
general  view,  that  in  Ephesus  and  Laodicea  are  exhibited  the 
first  and  the  last  ecclesiastical  period.  Ephesus,  the  central 
chm'ch  of  the  Apostle  John,  in  his  consummating  period,  the 
labouring,  enduring,  Apost9lical  Church,  which  condemned  and 
put  away  the  evil  and  the  false,  yet  already  in  a  transition  to 
the  leaving  of  her  first  love ; — therefore  the  remo^'ing  of  the 
candlestick  from  its  first  place  is  set  threateningly  in  view. 
Laodicea  (tlie  name  appears  in  all  cases  significant,  and  here 
means — where  the  people  rale  and  judge)  is,  with  equal 
certainty,  the  church  as  at  the  last  time  altogether  fallen  from 


112  TO  ST  JOHN  IN  PATMOS. 

love,  lukewarm,  self-complacent,  blind  :  the  vast  broad  state- 
church,  blending  all  things  together  in  a  so-called  Christendom, 
before  the  presence  of  the  Lord  who,  standing  at  the  door,  as 
the  Amen  yet  once  more  faithfully  testifies  and  exliorts,  and  can 
save  and  preserve  those  who  sit  A\dth  Him  at  the  table,  and  are 
to  sit  upon  His  throne,  only  by  chastisement  and  discipline. 
T^liat  lies  between  this  beginning  and  this  end,  admits  of  less 
clear  demarcation  in  detail.  The  most  definitely  marked  are 
Smyrna,  following  the  first,  and  Philadelphia,  preceding  the 
last,  and  the  time  of  which  stretches  through  the  last.  The 
former  signified -the  post-apostolical  Chm'ch,  which  is  exhorted 
to  fidelity  imto  death  in  the  midst  of  fearful  persecutions  of  the 
risen  Lord.  Philadelphia  (brotherly  love!),  holding  fast  the 
word  with  the  open  door  and  little  strength,  and  therefore  itself 
protected  from  the  great  hour  of  temptation, — may  sm'ely  exhibit 
to  us  the  pure  united  evangelical  Chwxh,  the  time  of  which, 
whatever  others  may  say,  has  ah'eady  commenced ;  and  to  which 
the  name  of  the  City  of  God,  of  the  alone  true  and  pure  Church, 
is  held  out  at  least  in  promise.  Only  Smyrna  and  Philadelphia 
are  not  rebulced,  as  only  Laodicea  is  not  commended.  The 
three  intermediate  churches  are,  in  the  stronger  intermixture  of 
their  character  (as  chm'ch  history  corresponds  to  it),  less  indi- 
vidually discernible  in  their  demaoxation.  Whether  actually  in 
Pergamos  (tower)  is  shadowed  out  the  witnessing  Church  dwell- 
ing in  the  midst  of  pseudo-chiu'chdom,  and  the  high  (Cassardom 
and)  Popedom,  which  alas  was  not  untarnished — that  is,  the 
beginnings  of  that  witnessing  Chm'ch — and  whether  in  Sardis 
the  Eeformed  Chm-ch,  fallen  down  to  a  name  without  tnith, 
and  to  only  a  small  remnant  of  faithful,  first  orthodox  and  then 
rationalist — we  cannot  venture  positively  to  pronounce:  certainly 
a  place  belongs  to  the  continuous  old-catholic  churches  (with  and 
after  Pergamos).  These  find,  indeed,  their  type  in  Thyatira, 
that  is,  the  believing,  ser^dng,  working  Christians  among  them ; 
if,  namely,  we  rightly  consider  the  whore  Jezebel  and  her  idol 
sacrifices,  the  threatened  judgment,  the  true  authority  to  feed 
the  nations  promised  to  the  overcomer.  But  enough :  we  re- 
serve the  rest  for  the  exposition  of  the  details ;  and  leave  it  to 
the  Lord  to  reveal,  in  His  OAvn  time  and  Avay,  to  eveiy  one  what 
may  do  himself  and  others  service — being  for  our  own  part  far 
from  asserting  that  what  we  have  to  say  is  incontrovertibly  true. 


KEY.  II.  III.  113 


THE  SEVEN  EPISTLES  TO  THE  SEVEN  CHURCHES. 
(Rev.  ii.  iii.) 

That  which  these  Epistles,  placed  thus  in  the  forefront, 
demand  of  the  reader  of  this  prophetic  book  of  history  and 
mystery — to  wit,  self-examination  before  we  presume  to  hear 
and  interpret  the  things  that  shall  be ! — ^we  earnestly  commend 
to  every  student  of  this  Apocalypse  generally ;  and  to  every 
reader  of  this  little  book,  which  professes  to  expound  only  its 
commencement  as  containing  the  immediate  words  of  oiu'  Lord. 
The  whole  Church  of  Christ,  every  particular  church,  and  every 
individual  believer,  should  constantly  lay  bare  the  heart  to  the 
word  of  this  great  Searcher  of  hearts  with  the  flaming  eyes,  of 
this  Judge  Avho  cometli  with  the  two-edged  sword  of  His  mouth 
— /  know  thy  works  !  Every  one  must  receive  from  Him  the 
exhortation  and  appeal  which,  while  it  warns  and  even  threatens, 
is  yet  full  of  the  strongest  encouragement.  Thus  these  Epistles 
correspond  with  the  words  which  begin  and  end  the  great 
prophecy  of  our  Lord  yet  upon  earth — See  that  ye  be  not  de- 
ceived !  Watch  always !  What  I  say  luito  you  I  say  unto  all, 
Watch!  (Matt.  xxiv.  4;  Luke  xxi.  36;  Mark  xiii.  37).  Hence 
Eev.  xxii.  11,  12,  returns  back  to  the  same  injmiction. 

That  is  an  incorrect  exposition — pervading  Bengel's  school, 
and  otherwise  common — which  refers  the  address  to  the  angel 
of  the  chm'cli  alone  and  as  an  individual.^  The  significantly 
iTinnino;  "  He  that  hath  ears  to  hear,  let  him  hear  what  the 
Spirit  saith  unto  the  churches  /"  is  decisive  against  such  a  limita- 
tion, as  also  the  transition  to  the  more  comprehensive  ye  in  the 
application,  ch.  ii.  10,  24.  Nevertheless,  so  much  is  true,  that 
in  the  "angel"  the  position  and  consciousness  of  the  church 
belonging  to  him  is  essentially  represented  and  inwardly  con- 
centrated ;  therefore  all  exhortation  was  to  touch  him  first,  and 
then  in  him  and  further  through  him  the  church.  Conse- 
quently, every  such  president  or  ruling  person,  from  the  minister 

1  As,  e.g.^  iu  Bengel's  New  Testament ;  we  read  on  ver.  2 :  "  Thus  this 
man  must  have  had  a  penetrating  understanding ! " 

H 


114  THE  EPISTLE  TO  EPHESUS. 

of  the  smallest  cure  to  tlie  general  superintendent  of  the  whole 
district,  every  one  who  is  thus  responsible  for  the  rest,  must  spe- 
cifically examine  himself  whether  and  in  what  way  that  which 
the  Spirit  saith  to  his  church  affects  himself  individually.  Con- 
sequently, also,  every  theologian  who  would  be  an  expositor  of 
the  revelation  of  Saint  John  "  the  divine,"  must  not  rapidly 
hasten  over  this  commencement,  given  for  his  o\\n  self-exami- 
nation ;  he  must  not  consider  it  all  his  duty  to  investigate  and 
treat  of  the  relation  which  the  Epistle  had  to  the  angel  of 
Ephesus,  or  Smyrna,  or  the  rest.  Let  us,  Avith  such  a  hearing 
ear  as  this,  hear  the  words  of  the  heavenly  Epistle-writer  through 
the  Spirit ! 

Unto  the  angel  of  the  church  of  Ephesus  write  ; 
These  things  saith  He  that  holdeth  the  seven  stars  in 
His  eight  hand,  who  walketh  in  the  midst  of  the  seven 
GOLDEN  CANDLESTICKS.  The  metropolis,  and  central  church 
of  Lesser  Asia,  opens  the  series ;  where,  in  the  very  seat  of  ido- 
latry, superstition,  and  sorcery,  the  flourishing  plantation  of  the 
great  Apostle  of  Heathenism  had  come  under  the  immediate 
care  of  St  John.  The  name,  the  historical  derivation  of  which 
is  obscm'e,  might  be  prophetically  interpreted  The  Beloved,  the 
Desired;  or  the  Sender,  which  would  more  aptly  note  the  dis- 
tinction of  the  great  "  Apostolical"  Church  of  the  beginning. 
But  all  this  is  undefined,  and  has  no  bearing  upon  the  exposi- 
tion. Nor  are  we  to  refer  this  to  Timothy,  who  was  only  for  a 
thne  an  "  evangelist"  to  Ephesus  (2  Tim.  iv.  5,  9),  and  as  it 
were  an  apostolical  delegate  for  the  full  establishment  of  the 
Church ;  not  to  mention  other  reasons  which,  when  we  reflect 
further,  turn  our  thoughts  away  from  him.  The  personalities 
of  the  historical  basis  retreat  into  that  obscui'Ity  in  \^'hich  it  has 
pleased  the  wisdom  of  God  that  the  specialities  of  the  early 
Church  should  be  wrapped,  In  order  that  the  permanent  canoni- 
cal word  written  for  us  might  more  clearly  shine  out.  Thus  it 
rather  imports  us  to  behold  and  hear  Him  who  speaks  to  the 
Ephesian  angel,  and  who  prefixes  to  the  first  Epistle  the  first 
comprehensive  title — I,  the  supreme  Pastor  of  all  the  churches ! 
After  the  manner  of  the  old  prophetical,  Thus  saith  the  Lord  I 
He  utters  His  majestic  I,  though  Himself  speaks  in  the  third 
person ;  yet  this  is  all  the  more  emphatic  after  the  preceding 
manifestation.     He  holdeth  the  seven  stai-s  in  His  right  hand, 


REV.  II.  1-7.  115 

and  this  in  the  original  has  a  strong  meaning ;  who  by  the  might 
of  His  right  hand  holds  them  fast^  ruling  and  defending  thein, 
that  they  may  not  fall  from  His  hand,  and  that  no  man  may 
pluck  them  thence.  Even  Sardis  and  Laodicea  are  still  in  His 
hand ;  -vA-ith  all  their  severe  rebukes,  they  are  not  yet  cast  away ! 
A  candlestick  may  indeed  be  removed  out  of  its  place  (ver.  3) — 
yet  only  to  another ;  the  seven  candlesticks  as  a  whole  cannot  be 
extinguished  before  Him.  But  that  comes  only  of  the  grace  in 
which  he  walketh  among  them :  He  visits,  cares  for,  and  guards 
all  in  particular — as  to  every  candlestick  there  might  appertain 
many  lesser  lights,  scarcely  glimmering  in  their  feebleness.  He 
who  walketh  in  the  midst  of  the  seven  churches  is  the  same  who 
promised  that  wherever  Two  or  Three  were  gathered  together  in 
His  name.  He  would  be  in  the  midst  of  them !  In  this,  at  the 
same  time,  consists  the  unity  of  all  believers  and  of  all  churches 
in  the  one  Church ;  as  this  unity,  testified  here  first  for  Ephesus, 
was  aclcnowledged  in  the  Apostolical  Chm'ch.  Alas,  that  the 
isolated  churches  of  later  times  have,  in  the  darlaiess  of  their 
pride,  forgotten  that  the  Lord  walketh  among  all  the  candle- 
sticks, in  all  churches,  confessions,  and  sects  which  rest  upon 
the  one  foimdation. 

I  KNOW  THY  WORKS,  AISTD  THY  LABOUR,  AND  THY  PATIENCE, 
AND  HOW  THOU  CANST  NOT  BEAR  THEM  WHICH  ARE  EVIL; 
AND  THOU  HAST  TRIED  THEM  WHICH  SAY  THEY  ARE  APOSTLES, 
AND  ARE  NOT,  AND  HAVE  FOUND  THEM  LIA'RS.      ThuS  upon  the 

one  sure  foundation  which  God  in  Christ  hath  laid,-  this  seal  is 
engraven — The  Lord  hioweth  them  that  are  His !  The  first 
prayer  of  His  little  company  addressed  to  Him  ran — Thou,  Lord, 
knowest  the  hearts  of  all !  (Acts  i.  24).  How  should  not  He 
know  them,  who  walks  among  them,  who  dwells  in  their  midst, 
whose  light  alone  enkindled  the  stars  and  keeps  them  shining  ? 
But  because  the  Searcher  of  hearts  speaks  here  as  also  the 
comino;  and  warning  Judo;e,  He  mentions  onlv  —  while  He 
means  the  ground  of  the  heart — the  loorJcs  vA\h.  their  absolute 
evidence,  as  they  are  always  mentioned  in  connection  with  the 
judgment :  the  fruits  for  which  He  will  ask,  the  gain  which  He 
will  look  for.  There  are  works  seemingly  good,  but  He  means 
not  these ;  they  are  the  genuine,  substantial,  and  worthy  works, 

•   ^  Kpccruv  from  Kpxrog  is  elsewhere  used  iu  tlie  sense  of  hold  fast,  pre- 
serve:  for  example,  ver.  25  of  this  chapter. 


116  THE  EPISTLE  TO  EPHESUS. 

to  which  are  ojDposed  the  mere  conceit  of  an  imaginary  faith. 
Works,  which  are  vahd  before  the  Lord,  are  fomid  only  where 
there  is  lahour  or  dihgence ;  and  fiu'ther,  these  are  only  where 
there  is  patience,  not  merely  in  suffering,  but  in  all  perseverance 
generally  in  the  sense  of  this  scriptural  word.'^  Parallels  in 
matter  and  word  are  1  Cor.  xv.  58 ;  1  Thess.  i.  3 ;  Heb.  \\.  10. 
How  many  would  fain  satisfy  and  appease  the  Lord  with  so- 
called  "  works,"  who  must  hear  the  further  question  to  theii' 
shame^But  where  is  the  toil  and  labour  of  love,  as  the  demon- 
stration of  the  genuineness  of  the  woi'k  of  faitli  t  where  the 
perseverance  in  fidelity,  the  patience  from  hope  ?  It  is  not  that 
the  earnestness  of  this  persevering  maintenance  is  to  be  sought  in 
the  later  matm'ity  of  the  Christian  life ;  we  see  rather  here,  that 
this  test  is  applied  to  Avhat  may  be  termed  youthful  Christianity, 
to  the  Apostolical  Church — as  generally  the  Epistle  to  Ephesus  is 
adapted  to  rightly  established  beginners.  For,  as  we  hear  again 
in  the  conclusion,  it  is  the  fresh,  pure,  beginning  of  separation 
from  the  e\-i\  world,  its  sin  and  lie,  that  is  threatened  with  the  war- 
fare with  opposers  and  seducers.  And  then  comes  in  the  Avord — 
And  I  know  that  thou  canst  not  bear  those  that  are  evil,  although 
thy  patience  heareth  much !  ^  It  is  quite  a  different  thing  to  bear 
evil  in  the  sense  of  2  Tim.  ii.  4  :  as  the  necessary  corrective  of  a 
patience  which  receives  all  suffering,  and  which  otherwise  might 
degenerate  into  mere  miholy  weakness,  there  must  always  be 
bound  up  with  all  true  love  a  hatred  against  e^d\  (Eom.  xii.  9), 
and  consequently  a  holy  intolerance  so  far  against  all  the  doers 
of  evil.  We  must  actually,  for  the  sake  of  truth,  not  be  able  to 
bear  the  least  imputation  of  such  bearing  Avith  sinners  as  tole- 
rates and  is  content  to  have  any  fellowship  A^tli  their  sin.  That 
inability  to  bear  is  a  high  connuendation  in  the  sight  of  the 
Lord,  and  stands  here  prominently  among  the  first-fruit  virtues 
of  His  first  community.  Finally,  there  are  at  all  times,  and 
there  were  in  the  beginning  also,  seducers  and  teachers  of  error 
who  came  forward  with  very  specious  pretensions ;  but  they 

^  In  conformity  with  this  order  of  the  thought,  each  of  the  three  words 
has  the  pronoun.  We  would  not  therefore,  with  many,  strike  out  the  aov^ 
that  labour  and  patience  might  be  brought  nearer  together. 

2  '  Ai/£|/x«;cof,  according  to  Hcsychius,  vvroipipuv  x.a.x.u,.  The  adversaries 
must  be  really  withstood,  though  it  may  be  with  meekness :  they  are  not  to 
be  tolerated  and  borne  with  as  such. 


REV.  II.  1-7.  117 

were  to  be  tried,  tested  by  the  true  standard,  to  see  wliether 
they  were  what  they  pretended  to  be.  The  text  speaks,  ^\^th 
reference  to  the  time  in  which  there  were  still  true  Apostles,  of 
the  false  ones  whom  the  New  Testament  often  sets  before  us ; 
St  Paul,  who  was  greatly  beset  by  them,  prophesied  of  their 
coming  to  Ephesus,  Acts  xx.  29.  The  testing  of  these  false 
apostles,  so  that  they  might  be  found  to  be  liars  as  they  were, 
is  by  no  means  only  a  "  matter  for  the  Bishop" — as  the  simple 
Romanist  Allioli  says,  in  his  "  approved"  exegesis ;  but  it  is, 
according  to  1  John  iv.  1,  the  duty  and  prerogative  of  eveiy 
Christian  man.  The  sheep  may  themselves  test  the  shepherd, 
whether  he  be  a  stranger  or  not. 

Still  more  perfectly  exliibiting  His  meaning,  and  still  dwell- 
ing on  the  good  fundamental  principle  which  is  graciously 
acknowledged,  the  Lord  concludes  this  first  part  of  His  address 
to  Ephesus :  Ajst>  hast  (or  ketainest)  patience,  and  hast 

BOKNE  FOR  My  NAME's  SAKE,  AND  HAST  NOT  FAINTED.  Pa- 
tience has  the  honour  of  being  twice  mentioned,  for  it  is 
the  decisive  grace  (ch.  xiii.  10,  xiv.  12)  ;  as  St  James  says,  she 
must  have  her  work  perfected,  must  fully  prosecute  and  finish 
the  good  work  of  faith :  Jas.  i.  4.  The  words  defend  them- 
selves on  both  sides  against  misunderstanding :  that  the  work, 
the  work  of  love  in  patience,  may  not  be  interpreted  in  a  sense 
contrary  to  holy  truth  and  rigid  purity,  there  comes  first  the 
not  bearing  with  the  evil,  the  testing  and  rejection  of  the  false ; 
but  then,  on  the  other  hand,  that  this  may  not  be  pressed  in  a 
spirit  opposed  to  love,  there  is  the  hearing  of  the  evil  and  in- 
justice which  the  wicked  inflict,  and  that  in  its  only  genuine 
spirit — For  My  name's  sake  !  This  embraces  both  at  once  and 
in  one,  as  well  the  love  of  Christ  which  impels  a  man  to  suffer, 
as  the  truth  of  Christ  for  the  maintenance  and  profession  of 
which  a  man  is  ready  to  suffer.  Let  every  Ckristian  and  every 
Christian  Church  look  in  the  glass  here  presented  to  him  by 
Christ,  and  ask  whether  the  Lord  has  found  the  works  of  such 
patience  accompHshed  ?  As  the  seeming  antithesis  —  Thou 
hast  borne,  although  thou  canst  not  bear — most  plainly  exhi- 
bits how  it  is  rightly  to  be  understood,  so  also  in  the  still  more 
untranslateable  words  of  the  orisinal  which  follow — I  know 
thy  labour,  but  thou  hast  not  laboured.^     The  same  word  is 

^  Toy  KOTTOv  aov — ko(,1  oi/  nSKOViXKets. 


118  THE  EPISTLE  TO  EPHESUS^ 

used  in  another  correlative  meaning,  in  the  second  clause  :  but 
it  is  not  so  mucli,  as  Zinzendorf  says,  "  Tliy  labour  has  not 
been  hea\y  and  tedious,  thou  hast  done  it  willingly,"  as,  "  Thou 
hast  not  become  weaiy  in  thy  toil,  thou  hast  not  sunk  imder 
thy  work."^  As  nothing  so  much  tends  to  produce  dejection, 
and  to  destroy  the  perseverance  of  patience,  as  the  conflict 
with  false  apostles  and  brethren,  so  it  is  certainly  the  highest 
praise  of  the  first  love  of  the  beginning  of  the  apostolical  time, 
that  it  had  preserved  its  fidelity  in  protesting  truth  and  in 
suffering  love. 

Nevertheless — alas,  this  nevertheless  follows  !  "  Thou  hast 
not  been  wear}*;  thou  hast  labom'ed  and  had  patience;  thou 
liast  for  a  while  held  out  both  in  the  not  suffering  and  the 
suffering :  but  now  thou  beginnest  to  be  weary  and  to  relax !" 
Alas,  if  such  a  word  as  this  must  be  spoken  in  the  Lord's  first 
address  to  His  first  church — and  the  history  even  of  the  apos- 
tolical age  shows  us  the  justification  for  it — who  is  there  that 
can  repel  and  decline  the  same  heart-searching  declaration  ? 
Who  am.ong  us  has  remained  uncontaminated  and  blameless  in 
his  first  love  ?  "  Let  the  righteous  smite  me  in  kindness ;  it 
shall  be  balsam  upon  my  head,"  spake  David,  the  type,  through 
the  Holy  Spirit  (Ps.  cxli.  5)  ;  and,  verily,  here  the  alone  Eight- 
eous  rebukes  and  smites  His  own  with  the  excellent  oil  of 
everlasting  love !  First  comes  the  full  and  unsparing  praise ; 
and  not  till  then  the  equally  just  blame.  And  when  that  cen- 
sure comes,  it  begins  in  the  gentlest,  mildest  expression — which, 
however,  on  that  very  account  is  keenly  penetrating — and  only- 
after  that  does  the  increasing  severity  of  the  inevitable  threaten- 
ing follow. 

Nevertheless,  I  have  against  thee,  that  thou  hast 
LEFT  THY  FIRST  LOVE.  As  the  Lord  directed  His  disciples 
that  the  brother  should  speak  to  the  brother,  if  he  have  ought 
against  him,  so  does  He  condescend  Himself,  in  all  the  greater 
majesty  and  conviction,  to  say — I  have  somewhat  against  thee ! 
He  that  hath  an  ear  to  hear,  let  him  hearken  when  the  Lord 
has  anything  against  him — let  him  return  and  reconcile  him- 
self with  his  Lord !  Do  we  not  perceive  that  it  is  His  love 
alone  Avliich  seeks  and  finds  wanting  the  love  in  us  ?     Can  any 

^  Compare  the  same  Greek  word  in  John  iv.  6 ;  and  similarly  Gal.  vi. 

9,   iX.X.UKUV. 


REV.  II.  1-7.  119 

one  more  toucliingly  rebuke  than  by  commencing  -vvitli  tlie  com- 
plaint— Tliou  no  longer  lovest  me  enough  ?  Indeed,  from  the 
lips  of  sinners  this  may  be  a  selfish  and  unrighteous  demand ; 
but  when  the  love  of  Him  who  thus  rebukes  is  firm  and  certain, 
and  pi'oves  itself  even  in  the  manner  of  the  rebuke,  He  has 
verily  in  strict  right  this  charge  to  bring.  The  inmost,  deepest 
root,  the  faith  presupposed  in  ver.  2,  Avhich  is  the  source  and 
impulse  of  works,  is  not  now  mentioned  or  laid  bare,  because  it 
is  self-understood  to  be  involved  in  the  charge.  The  necessity 
of  the  doctrine  and  experience  of  faith  had  been  pre-eminently 
set  forth  by  St  Paul ;  the  Lord  Himself,  after  He  had  spoken 
in  the  same  strain  while  upon  earth,  now  that  He  speaks  from 
heaven  lays  more  stress  in  His  phraseology — like  St  John, 
whose  pen  He  put  into  his  hand  elsewhere  for  the  same  pur- 
pose— upon  love,  the  power  and  fruit  of  faith ;  in  order  that  no 
man  in  His  chiu'ch  might  fall  into  the  false  perversion  of  the 
doctrine  of  "  faith  alone.'"  Twice  only  in  the  Seven  Epistles 
(to  Pergamos,  ver.  13,  and  Thyatira,  ver.  19)  do  we  find  the 
word  faith  ;  and  in  the  rest  of  the  Apocalypse  only  in  the  two 
comprehensive  and  strictly  connected  fundamental  passages,  ch. 
xiii.  10,  xiv.  12. 

Ebrard  understands  by  the  "  sacred  fire  of  first  love,"  which 
had  declined,  "  not  their  love  to  Christ,  but  then'  love  to  one 
another" — but  in  our  opinion  incorrectly.  As  if  such  a  separa- 
tion were  conceivable;  as  if  love  to  Christ  could  be  maintained  in 
work  and  patience,  while  love  to  the  brethren  was  wanting ! 
As  we  have  understood  the  whole,  the  praise  of  vers.  2,  3  was 
not  deserved  simultaneously  with  the  condemnation  of  ver. 
4;  but  the  commendation  speaks  of  a  beginning  which  had 
not  been  sustained,  of  the  same  abandoned  Jirst  love.  But 
thus  much  is  true,  that  when  that  love  which  is  the  energy 
and  living  power  of  faith,  and  which  in  its  profoundest  depth 
unites  in  one  the  love  of  God  and  man,  of  the  Lord  and  of 
the  bretlu:en,  begins  to  relax  and  decline,  its  coldness  is  first 
seen  and  made  manifest  in  the  external  ofiices  of  charity  (Matt, 
xxiv.  12).  From  the  weakening  of  brotherly  love,  and  con- 
currently of  that  love  to  all  men,  even  enemies,  which  is 
kindled  on  that  hearth,  and  is  ever  sustained  from  above, 
flows  all  apostasy  and  backsliding:  therefore  the  Lord's  con- 
vincing word  seizes  us  by  that  lack,  which  we  first  become 


120  THE  EPISTLE  TO  EPHESUS. 

< 

aware  of  oxirselves — indeed  only  in  order  to  disclose  the  damage 
and  deficiency  of  faith  which  that  very  lack  indicated.  If  we 
do  not  love  the  brethren,  and  all  men,  perfectly,  whence  is  that 
but  because  we  no  longer  love  the  Lord  perfectly  ?  For,  it  is 
only  the  one  love  of  Christ,  poured  into  our  hearts  by  the  Holy 
Ghost  in  order  to  oiu'  love  in  return,  which  can  urge  us  to 
show  love  to  our  brethren  and  fellows  in  pardoning  mercy, 
or  at  least  in  redeeming  love.  It  is  not  in  vain  or  without 
significance  that  "  thy  first  love"  is  spoken  of.  It  is  not  only 
to  shame  them  by  reference  to  the  past, — that  which  thou  for- 
merly hadst;  but  it  is  emphatically — My  love  hath  not  left 
thee;  but  thou  hast  forsaken,  hast  let  go,  this  love  of  Mine 
which  had  become  thine. 

The  history  of  the  Chiu'ch  from  the  beginning  is  a  thou- 
sandfold recun'ing  commentary  upon  this  unspeakably  signifi- 
cant word — the  first  rebuke  of  the  Church  from  her  Lord  in 
heaven,  and  penetrating  the  hearts  of  His  people  below  !  The 
special  individual  church-history  of  all  hearts,  as  spread  be- 
fore the  Lord's  eye,  testifies  that  something  of  this  relaxation 
of  the  first  love  has  befallen  every  man,  even  the  Apostles  in 
some  degi'ee,  and  multitudes  of  others  much  more  fully  and 
miserably.  Sanctification  does  riot  in  any  soul  reach  its  per- 
fection without  the  standine;  still  and  sometimes  the  goincp 
back :  this  is,  alas,  a  law  in  the  kingdom  of  grace,  in  which 
human  freedom  is  not  abolished.  But  the  ceasing  of  the  first 
love  does  not,  proj)erly  speaking,  consist  in  the  abatement  of 
the  powerful  and  happy  feelings  of  the  commencing  period, 
the  purification  and  softening  down  of  which,  rather,  belongs 
to  the  strengthening  and  deepening  of  grace ;  but  in  the  weak- 
ening and  growing  faint  of  the  energy  which  sustains  the  work 
proceeding  from  faith  —  as  ver.  3  preparatorily  intimated. 
Genuine  love  is  not  a  feeling,  but  a  willing  and  a  working. 
When  that  grows  exhausted,  there  may  indeed  be — as  was  the 
case  in  the  Apostolical  period — a  continuance  of  the  working 
and  conflict  as  against  the  world,  of  the  witness  and  mainte- 
nance of  the  truth.  This  may  actually  seem  to  increase  and 
become  more  zealous ;  but  it  will  be  no  longer  of  the  genuine 
character ;  it  does  not  go  affectionately  into  the  world  to  \v\\\ 
its  victories,  because  it  no  longer  proceeds  from  the  brotherly 
love  which  burns  vigorously  upon  the  enclosed  hearth,  and 


RET.  II.  1-7.  121 

which  rests  upon  the  common  love  of  each  to  the  Lord.^  The 
church  in  Ephesus  is  not  jet  wanting  in  pure  doctrine;  the 
false  apostles  are  repelled,  and  will  be  so ;  nor  is  it  wanting 
in  sharp  discipline,  the  wicked  are  not  borne  with,  but  are 
handled  Avith  increasing  severity.^  But  all  these  manifestations 
are  internally  connected  -svith  a  lack  of  tinith  and  spiritual 
vigour,  of  sacred  and  divine  life.  The  external  too-much 
conceals  before  human  eyes  an  internal  too-little  ;  but  the 
Lord  discloses  it,  and  keenly  pierces  the  heart  of  His  Church 
— Thou  hast  left  thy  first  love  !  As  if  He  would  utter  the 
words  once  spokento  Israel : — /  remind  thee  of  the  kindness 
of  thy  youth,  the  love  of  thine  espousals,  when  Israel  was  holi- 
ness to  the  Lord,  and  the  first-fruits  of  His  increase  (Jer.  ii. 
2,  3).     Remember  thou  through  My  reminding ! 

Remember,  therefore,  from  whence  thou  art  fallen, 

AND  REPENT,  AND   DO    THE   FIRST   WORKS.       Call   tO   mind   the 

first  days  of  thy  good  beginning,  and  deeply  reflect.  For  Sardis, 
which  represents  a  new  commencement,  the  same  exliortation  is 
repeated,  ch.  iii.  3.  How  were  ye  then  so  blessed!  writes  St 
Paul  to  the  Galatians  (ch.  iv.  15).  Even  with  the  increasing 
severity,  which  speaks  of  an  actual  fall  and  a  new  repentance, 
how  gracious  is  the  evangelical  preaching  and  enforcement  of 
this  repentance — on  the  ground  of  grace  once  more  offered,  a 
grace  which  had  been  already  received  and  experienced.  It 
was  thi/  first  love,  glowing  then  so  strongly  and  blessedly  from 
My  love,  which  thou  hast  not  held  fast !  Herder  writes  too 
much  in  the  modern  sentimental  tone,  though  not  mthout 
truth :  "  The  whole  Epistle  comes,  as  it  were,  from  the  paradise 
of  innocence  and  love.  The  mother  could  not  more  tenderly 
remind  the  child,  nor  the  bride  her  beloved,  of  happy  times 
gone  by  which  have  not  returned ! "  He  then  goes  on,  with 
less  justifiable  exaggeration :  "  As  if  this  voice  of  love  would 
come  stealthily,  after  abounding  praise,  to  the  subject  of  that 
which  was  yet  wanting :  and  that  is  spoken  of  as  what  might 

^  And  Avorse  in  later  times,  Avith  the  zeal  of  the  Confessions  against 
brethren  united  even  in  faith,  without  the  uniting  principle  of  a  living 
oneness  with  all  members  in  the  Lord's  one  body. 

2  j\n(i  this  will  show,  in  comparison  with  Pergamos  presently,  vers.  14, 
15,  and  the  following  churches,  that  the  First  Epistle  was  not  thoroughly 
and  exdusiceJij  meant  of  the  Apostolical  Church,  as  a  one-sided  prophetical 
interpretation  assumes. 


122  THE  EPISTLE  TO  EPHESUS. 

soon  be  repaired — Remember  how  it  was  with  thee !  And  is  it 
better  now  ?  And  then  new  praise  follows  for  more  abundant 
encom-agement."  No,  this  is  not  the  spirit  of  the  rebuke! 
This  is  not  the  sweet  relish  which  the  bitter  medicine  of  the 
intermingled  Ee3IEMBER  !  leaves  iipon  oui'  thoughts.  Its 
solemn  and  searching  general  tone  has  made  it  a  piercing  word 
of  thunder,  which  the  Holy  Spirit  has  used  among  all  fallen 
churches  and  souls,  even  those  which  have  worse  fallen*  than 
Ephesus.  What  a  history  has  this  text  of  Scripture  had  in  the 
secrets  of  men,  where  the  Lord  is  now  carrying  on  His  judg- 
ment of  grace!  Thou  art  fallen — that  means  a  real  and 
actual  fall,  though  only  at  first  in  the  ground  of  the  heart,  and 
but  little  made  evident  in  external  things.  And  from  whence  ? 
From  the  full,  rich  grace  of  the  new  life  in  the  love  of  God ;  in 
a  certain  sense,  therefore,  it  is  a  worse  fall  and  more  perilous 
than  the  first  fall  of  man,  of  which  the  Lord's  words  remind 
the  church  of  Ephesus.  There  is  something  true  in  the  doctrine 
of  the  L'vingites  concerning  a  great  apostasy  of  the  original 
church,  the  "  catastrophe  of  a  second  Fall ; "  but  the  fanatical 
error  which  has  caricatured  this  historical  truth,  and  perverted 
its  meaning  into  sad  extravagances,  is  plain  in  the  words  them- 
selves. Wliere  does  the  Lord  speak  of  the  loss  of  spiritual  gifts, 
of  the  disruption  of  ecclesiastical  order,  of  the  abandonment  of 
obedience  to  official  dignities,  and  all  those  other  matters  in 
which  these  strange  people  behold  at  once  the  guilt  and  the 
punishment  of  the  first  church  ?  The  Lord  rests  His  charge 
upon  very  different  grounds;  He  rebtdves  the  angel  with  the 
church ;  He  does  not  merely  refer  the  congregation  back  to  the 
discipline  and  form  of  a  forsaken  constitution,  but  to  their  first 
love;  He  does  not  teach,  in  the  Corinthian  manner,  the  dis- 
tinguishing value  of  miraculous  gifts,  which  are  not  even  men- 
tioned here,  any  more  than  in  the  whole  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians 
(although  there  were  such  gi'eat  miracles  performed  there,  there 
is  no  mention,  even  in  ch.  iv.  11,  of  workers  of  miracles ! ) ;  He 
preaches,  simply,  a  renewed  liEPENTANCE,  as  in  the  beginning. 
This  preaching  of  repentance,  indeed,  with  which  Christianity 
began,  as  did  the  Reformation,  and  which  is  evermore  preached 
on  every  relapse  of  churches  or  souls,  is  something  veiy  different 
from  those  means  of  grace  which,  in  our  days,  even  Lutherans, 
^  Stundeu  der  Andacht,  8L 


EEV.  II.  1-7.  123 

like  the  Irvingites,  appoint  in  the  church  as  false  physicians. 
Not  from  without  inwardl}',  and  from  above  downwardly,  but 
from  within  outwardly,  through  retm-n  to  first  lorn,  the  hurt  of 
souls  is  healed :  this  cannot  be  too  diligently  remembered,  and 
earnestly  enforced. 

As  love  is  not  merely  a  delectable  feeling,  but  a  labour  of 
the  dependent  and  devoted  will;  as  faith  is  not  merely  a 
tliought,  but  an  impulsive  and  abundant  spring  of  good  works ; 
so  the  Lord  will  recognise  no  repentance  but  that  which  is  con- 
firmed in  the  doing  of  the  first  works.  In  this  He  requires, 
as  Tholuck  says,  "  the  energy  and  strength  of  the  works  of  first 
love."  Ihey  must  be  the  proof  of  thy  change  of  mind,  and 
retm"n  to  God.     These  thou  canst  present,  if  thou  dost  repent. 

But  that  is  ever  left  with  human  freedom ;  Christ's  wdiole- 
some,  disciplinary,  faithfully  inviting  and  chastising  grace,  puts 
force  on  none.     Or  else  I  will  come  unto  thee  (quickly), 

AND    will    remove    THY    CANDLESTICK    OUT    OF    HIS    PLACE, 

EXCEPT  THOU  REPENT.  The  deepest  emphasis  falls  upon  the 
repetition  at  the  close  of  this  Except!  It  seems  at  first  to 
strengthen  the  threatening;  but  when  we  lay  it  to  heart,  it 
rather  softens  the  rigour  of  the  simply  conditional  threatening. 
It  goes  on  to  say —  Only  if  thou  repentest  not,  will  this  judg- 
ment befall  thee !  Wilt  thou  not  turn  it  away  ?  I  will  come 
mito  thee — thus,  with  evident  difference,  the  preliminary  judg- 
ment, first  upon  Ephesus  alone,  is  indicated;  thus  the  Lord 
cmnetJi,  in  all  ages,  to  judgment  upon  men  individually,  as  well 
as  to  His  churches.  These  Epistles  speak,  each  of  them,  of  this ; 
and,  as  we  have  remarked,  with  progressive  distinctness  mito 
the  last  and  perfect  judgment.  The  "soon"  which  has  been 
placed  here,  also  may  have  been  falsely  inserted  from  later 
passages  (ver.  16  and  ch.  iii.  11) — yet  we  would  not  positively 
strike  it  out,  since  it  holds  good  of  every  such  threatening,  and 
is  true  even  of  the  slowly  coming  judgments.  We  would 
fm'ther  remark  that,  as  om'  Lord  announces  His  coming  as  a 
first  tj-pical  judgment  upon  Jerusalem,  so  now,  in  these  Epistles, 
He  speaks  in  the  same  manner  of  His  coming  to  His  Church. 
Threatening  of  judgment,  as  actual  threatening,  is  ever  and 
absolutely  necessary,  and  from  the  beginning  could  not  be 
spared.  The  revelation  and  utterance  of  such,  not  merely 
threatened,  but  actually  accomplished,  judgments  of  the  Lord 


124  THE  EPISTLE  TO  EPHESUS. 

— accomplished  upon  many  chnrclies  of  the  great  Church — is 
the  removal  of  the  candlestick.  Literally  taken,  it  does  not 
m.ean  an  overturnincp  or  extinction  of  the  light ;  but  the  expres- 
sion (which  is  moving  away,  as  in  ch.  vi.  14)  simply  purports 
the  displacing  from  where  it  stood — to  this  place  a  testimony  of 
guilt  and  punishment — and  thus  the  grace  is  renewed  in  another 
place.^  Ephesus  did,  indeed,  once  repent,  even  if  not  with 
all  her  might,  and,  therefore,  the  judgment  was  restrained. 
But  then  "  the  subsequent  desolation  of  the  city  of  Ephesus " 
has  something  to  do  mth  the  t}qDical-prophetical  threatening ;  ^ 
although  the  true  fulfilment  came  long  afterwards,  in  the  de- 
struction of  the  whole  of  the  first  Oriental  churches  by  I^Ioham- 
med.  Indeed,  this  threatening  of  the  removal  of  the  candle- 
stick, intelligible  without  much  exposition,  has  its  universal 
meaning,  and  is,  by  the  Spirit,  applied  in  many  ways  to  the 
churches. 

He  who  threateneth  hath  a  gracious  meaning,  and  turns  His 
threatening  almost  immediately  to  consolation.  For  Ephesus 
the  name  is  preceded  and  followed  by,  is  wi'apped  up  in,  praise. 
At  the  first  glance  it  is  similar  to  the  words  of  the  prophet  Jehu 
to  king  Jehosaphat,  "  Nevertheless  there  are  good  things  found 
in  thee,  in  that  thou  hast  taken  away  the  groves  out  of  the  land, 
and  hast  prepared  thine  heart  to  seek  God"  (2  Chron.  xix.  3) ; 
but  here  there  is  much  more  grace.  But  this  thou  hast,  that 

THOU  HATEST   THE    DEEDS    OF   THE   NiCOLAITANlES,  WHICH   I 

ALSO  HATE.  Their  fall  from  first  love  was  not  so  deep  and  in- 
curable but  that  their  concurrent  zeal  against  those  who  had 
still  more  deeply  fallen  might  be  acknowledged.  Thus,  the 
Lord  says  here,  The  Nicolaitanes — them  indeed  thou  shouldst 
not  love,  and  in  false  love  tolerate !  Thy  hatred  against  their 
false  works  is  good ;  it  is  itself  something  that  may  help  thee  to 
improvement  and  conversion ;  for  it  is  something  remaining  of 

^  The  expositors  -who  regard  the  Epistles  as  directed  only  to  the  angels, 
are  obliged  here — because  the  hghts  are  the  churches  themselves — to  resort 
to  strange  shifts.  Bengel :  There  will  be  an  angel  without  a  church ! 
Eieger :  The  Church  is  the  light  of  the  teacher. 

2  This  is  not  (as  Ebrard  says)  a  confusion  of  the  historical  and  prophetic 
meanings,  because  God's  government  does  further  exhibit  and  stamp  the 
types  in  history  itself.  The  village  into  which  Ephesus  has  sunk  (Aja- 
Soluk,  ciyiet  kohoyo',^  or  koKoyQ\j)  stands  as  the  type  of  fallen  and  desolated 
churches ! 


REV.  II.  1-7.  125 

thy  first  strength  and  pimty.  The  Epistle  makes  mention  of  this 
matter  as  a  prop,  leaning  upon  which  the  fallen  may  rise  and 
re-estabhsh  themselves.  Again,  it  carefully  speaks  (more  pre- 
cisely than  the  Old  Testament,  e.g.,  Ps.  cxxxix.  21,  22)  of 
merely  hating  the  works,  and  not  the  persons.  These  Nicolai- 
taiies,  whose  evil  works  are  plainly  manifest,  need  no  temptation 
to  reveal  them,  as  the  false  apostles  previously.  What  concerns 
their  historical  relations,  the  learned  may  decide  when  they 
can;  to  us  all  such  matters  are  subordinate.  Certainly  they 
were,  as  vers.  14,  15  show,  a  kind  of  undisciplined  Gnostics  or 
false  Theosophists,  who,  under  the  proud  pretext  of  higher 
knowledge,  gave  the  reins  to  the  flesh,  and  perverted  the  gi-ace 
of  God  into  Hcentiousness.  Whether  the  name,  as  the  Fathers 
thought,  was  derived  from  their  founder  Nicolas  (him  men- 
tioned in  Acts  vi.  5  !)  can  neither  be  maintained  nor  denied  with 
confidence ;  but  it  appears  to  us,  as  compared  with  Jezebel,  ver. 
20,  much  more  probable  that  Nicolaus  is  only  a  translation  of 
Balaam  (ver.  14),  and  therefore  no  other  than  a  symbolical 
name.  But  this  would  not  permit  us  to  say,  "  that  sect  bore  in 
prosaic  reaUty  the  name  of  Nicolaitanes" — for  had  "Jezebel" 
a  name  corresponding  in  actual  fact  ?  Yie  think  that,  in  the 
everywhere  mysterious,  symbolical  style  of  the  Apocalj^Dse,  where 
besides  the  names  of  the  churches  no  other  historical  names 
occur,  actual  "  Nicolaitanes"  can  hardly  be  assumed  to  have 
existed.  Nicolaus  means  "  conqueror  of  the  people;"  Balaam 
"  seducer  of  the  people  :" ' — this  is  plain  enough  as  the  signature 
of  such  people,  of  whom  ver.  14  will  speak  more  particularly. 
We  only  add,  for  practical  use  and  application  :  Hate  thou  only 
with  true  earnestness  all  abominations  of  the  fleshly,  impm'e, 
proud — and  be  thou,  through  such  opposition,  warned  back  into 
pui*e  and  holy  love  of  the  Spirit.  Deep  repentance  of  those  who 
for  their  internal  backshdings  are  punished  goes  hand  in  hand 
with  the  abhoiTence  of  the  sins  which  show  themselves  in  others. 
Thou  hatest  what  I  also  hate — the  Lord  acknowledges,  probably 

^  TVe  cannot  see  why,  according  to  Ewald  and  Geseuius,  another  etjono- 
logy  (the  latter  gives  ''?  not,  not  of  the  people,  a  stranger !)  must  be  sought. 
Fiirst  rightly  remarks  that  even  for  the  name  of  a  place,  =^'??1,  the  connected 
form  =^'3  occurs  in  1  Chrou.  vi.  55.     The  exposition  in  Hofmann,  that  the 

T :  •  -*■  ' 

angel's  wife  was  Jezebel,  and  consequently  her  true  name  sufficiently  well 
known  to  him,  appears  to  us  too  historical  and  unapocalyptical. 


126  THE  EPISTLE  TO  EPHESUS. 

not  without  reference  to  tliat  Old  Testament  passage,  already 
quoted,  in  which  Jehoshaphat  was  rebuked — Shouldst  thou  help 
the  ungodly  and  love  them  that  hate  the  Lord  ?  But  the  Lord 
does  not  hate  those  who  hate  Him ;  but,  as  He  commands  us, 
only  their  Avorks. 

The  promise  to  the  overcomer — so  suggestively  the  same  in 
form  throughout,  yet  varjdng  in  each  case  the  matter — is  the 
conclusion  of  all  the  Epistles — to  give  assurance  that  it  is  the 
purpose  of  grace  to  inflict  salutary  chastisement,  and  by  its 
severest  threatenings  to  encourage  and  strengthen  the  soul  to 
overcome  in  the  great  warfare.  This  evangelical  character  of 
the  Epistles  is  to  be  all  the  more  clearly  apprehended  and  im- 
pressed upon  the  mind,  because  the  predominant  judicial  rigour 
which  reigns  throughout  the  book  of  Kevelation  must  by  it  be 
interpreted  and  understood.  In  these  promises  the  thou  every- 
where ceases ;  and  its  place  is  taken  by  the  "  whosoever,'"  so  speci- 
fically characteristic  of  our  Lord's  earthly  prophetic  office.  We 
know  well  the  attractive  words — Whosoever  cometh  to  INIe! 
whosoever  believeth  on  Me !  whosoever  believeth  and  is  bap- 
tized! compare  Rev.  xxii.  17.  ^'\'lioso  heareth — whosoever  wiR 
come !  this  is  the  consoling  little  word  of  promise,  which  keeps 
open  the  door  of  grace  to  every  man  to  the  end  of  time.  But 
with  this  we  must  connect  another  ichosoever,  which  establishes 
the  condition,  and  makes  room  for  the  promise — Whosoever 
hath  ears  to  hear,  let  him  hear !  This  word — also  a  usual  ex- 
pression of  the  Lord — occurs  in  the  first  Epistles  before  the  con- 
cluding promise ;  in  the  last  four  before  it. 

He  THAT  HATH  AN  EAR,  LET  HIM  HEAR  WHAT  THE  SpIRIT 
SAITH  UNTO  THE  CHURCHES  :  To  HIM  THAT  OVERCOMETH 
WILL  I  GIVE  TO  EAT  OF  THE  TREE  OF  LIFE,  WHICH  IS  IN  THE 

PARADISE  OP  My  God. 

As  formerly  Jesus  demanded  for  His  parables  hearing  cars 
in  order  to  understand  them,  so  here  in  His  figurative  prophe- 
tical addresses.  The  expression  is  now  condensed  and  strength- 
ened thereby :  the  ear  is  more  solemnly  and  spiritually  spoken 
of ;  and  "  to  hear"  is  not  now  added.  Whosoever  hath  the  ear 
of  the  inner  man  opened  and  attentive  to  the  words  of  God — 
whosoever  has  it  still  open,  or  o])ens  it  again — shall  in  every 
Epistle  hear  something  for  himself;  for  each  of  them,  apart 
from  its  special  significance  for  the  churches,  is  addressed  to  all 


KEY.  II.  1-7.  127 

men  generally  and  in  common.  Let  us  not  deny  or  forget  tlie 
specific  prophetic  meaning ;  but  let  us  not,  wliile  investigating 
that,  neglect  their  general  lessons,  which  woidd  be  the  greater 
evil.  We  must  not  point  the  sentence  as  if  the  prefatory  ad- 
di'ess  referred  only  to  the  follo^Ying  promise^  this  is  opposed  by 
the  change  of  the  form  in  the  last  Epistles.  All  that  precedes 
and  all  that  follows  must  be  heard  by  each,  because  the  Spirit 
saitli  it  to  the  churches.  This  hearing  is  ever  the  way  to  the 
attainment  of  the  promised  reward  of  victoiy.  The  Spirit 
saitli — ^liereby  this  last  personal  utterance  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
from  heaven  passes  over  into  speaking  through  the  medium  of 
the  Sphit,  as  it  continues  throughout  the  book;  it  must  be 
understood,  that  here  particularly  the  Spirit  is  meant  as  the 
Spii'it  of  prophecy.  Probably,  He  who  appeared  as  in  ch.  i.  did 
not  continue  to  dictate  the  Epistles,  standing  visible  still  as  He 
did  at  the  first,  but  uttered  their  words  more  inwardly  to  the 
seer ;  notwithstanding,  there  is  a  distinction  in  this  book  between 
the  immediate  speaking  or  dictating  and  the  prophetic  inspira- 
tion elsewhere.  Assm'edly,  even  St  John  would  not  dare,  other- 
wise than  by  express  inspiration  of  the  words,  to  send  to  the 
churches  Epistles  of  such  a  form  and  of  such  contents,  clothed 
in  such  a  style  of  supreme  majesty.  Thus  it  was  only  tran- 
sitional and  intermediate  between  the  speaking  of  the  Lord  and 
the  speaking  of  the  Spirit;  and  at  the  same  time  immediately 
personal  in  its  particular  kind. 

The  Lord  speaks  of  overcoming  absolutely,  wdthout  saying 
whom  or  what ;  just  as  elsewhere — Ask  and  it  shall  be  given  ! 
without  needing  to  specify  whom  the  petitioner  is  to  ask.  The 
Lord's  sayings  from  heaven  do  not  begin  an  altogether  ne'w 
language;  but  presuppose  the  style  of  thought  and  words 
which  had  been  prevalent  in  His  Church  from  the  beginning. 
The  overcoming  which  He  refers  to  stretches  beyond  death; 
it  is  perfected  in  death,  as  the  common  language  of  the  world 
in  Christendom  has  learned  to  say  of  the  departed — He  has 
conquered  all !  If  w^c  would  begin  here  at  the  close  of  Scrip- 
ture to  develop  the  meaning  of  this  sublime  expression — reach- 
ing from  the  height  of  heaven  to  the  deepest  abyss  of  hell — 
it  would  open  up  the  whole  of  inspired  Kevelation.  St  John 
speaks  elsewhere  (1  John  v.  4)  of  a  faith  which  overcometh 
the  world;  in  his  Revelation  (ch.  xii.  11)  we  read  of  an  over- 


128  THE  EPISTLE  TO  EPHESU8. 

coming  of  Satan ;  comp.  1  John  xi.  14.  But  tlie  world  and 
Satan  are  also  within  us  through  sin ;  we  overcome  them,  how- 
ever, through  the  might  of  Him  who  hath  loved  us  and  over- 
come for  us: — thus  the  final  promise  in  the  seventh  Epistle 
holds  out  to  the  church  which  had  sunk  the  lowest  the  same 
prize  of  the  highest  victory.  This  first  promise  does  not  extend 
so  far  as  that  last;  it  begins  with  that  first  thing  which  the 
Lord  promised  to  the  thief  on  the  cross,  the  bHss  of  Paradise 
re-opened  bj  His  death,  that  is,  the  blessedness  of  an  uninter- 
rupted life  in  God's  presence.  The  expression  is  figurative  so 
far  as  it  is  derived  from  the  primitive  history ;  but  there  is  a 
mysterious  reality  corresponding  to  it  in  the  heavenly  regions, 
as  2  Cor.  xii.  4  gives  us  to  understand.  Who  will  ventm'e  to 
say  more,  when  St  Paul  could  not  utter  the  unspeakable  words '? 
"  The  Paradise^  of  My  God"  (according  to  the  right  reading)  is 
spoken  by  Christ  as  the  Forerunner  and  First-born  according 
to  His  humanity;  compare  ch.  iii.  2,  12.  This  manner  of 
speech  is — excepting  John  xx.  17 — pecidiar  to  the  ApocalyjDse, 
in  which  it  is  remarkable  (as  Bengel  has  observed)  that,  while 
sometimes  the  Father  of  Christ  is  mentioned,  God  is  never 
called  "Father"  as  addressed  by  men;  and  He  Himself  pro- 
mises to  be  their  God,  ch.  xxi.  3,  only  as  the  fidfihnent  of  the 
Old  Testament  word.  This  has  its  reason  in  the  profound 
reverence  and  the  holy  rigour  of  the  spiritual  combatants  to 
whom  this  book  is  written ;  and  also  in  the  return  to  Old  Tes- 
tament phraseology,  which  thus  is  made  to  coincide  with  the 
New.  The  wood  or  the  tree'  of  life  in  Paradise  glances  forward 
by  anticipation  to  the  close  of  the  whole,  ch.  xxii.  2,  14-19; 
as  almost  all  the  objects  of  the  promises  at  the  end  of  the 
Epistles  reappear  later  in  the  book  :  the  second  death,  ch. 
XX.  6,  14,  xxi.  8 ;  the  new  name,  ch.  xiv.  1 ;  power  over 
the  nations,  ch.  xx.  4  (xii.  5) ;  the  white  garment,  ch.  vii. 
9,  13 ;  the  book  of  life,  ch.  xiii.  8 ;  the  new  Jerusalem,  ch. 
xxi. ;  the  sitting  upon  the  throne,  ch.  v.  As  the  manna,  ver. 
17,  is  termed  hidden,  so  the  sure  interpretation  of  all  these 
glorious  I'ealities  is  reserved  for  experience ;  but  when  that  ex- 

^  There  can  be  no  reference  here  admitted  to  the  lower  Paradise  in 
Hades  (which  alone  the  thief  could  understand  at  first,  whatever  other 
meaning  was  included).     Compare  my  exposition  of  Luke  xxiii.  43. 

2  As  the  Sept.  in  Genesis  has  ^vT^ov. 


EEV.  II.  8--11.  *  129 

perience  comes,  they  will  most  abundantly  reveal  their  meaning. 
We  have  only  one  more  remark  to  make,  that  the  promise  in 
every  Epistle  is  chosen  with  appropriate  reference  to  the  con- 
dition and  conflict  of  the  church  addi'essed :  so  here  the  Para- 
disaical fruit  of  the  tree  of  life  is  opposed  to  the  forbidden 
fruits  of  fleshly  lust  with  which  the  Nicolaitanes  were  swollen. 
That  in  these  epistles  the  clearest,  most  penetrating  words  of 
ordinary  preaching  and  teaching  are  bound  up  with  the  most 
mysterious  enigmas,  smking  deep  mto  the  treasm^es  of  Divine 
revelation  from  the  beginning,  is  the  necessary  result  of  the 
royal  style  which  is  impressed  upon  them  as  coming  from  the 
Throne.  The  Sphit  reveals  their  meaning,  according  to  our 
capacity  and  om'  need,  m  presentiments  wdiich  cannot  be  trans- 
lated into  plain  exposition,  and  ai'e  not  the  prerogative  of  every 
man. 

And  unto  the  angel  of  the  chuech  in  Smyena 
white:  These  things  saith  the  Fiest  and  the  Last, 
which  was  dead,  and  is  alive.  ^ 

This  is  the  briefest  among  the  Epistles,  as  that  to  Thyatira 
is  the  longest.  So,  Smyrna  receives  no  blame,  Philadelphia 
alone  standing  with  her  in  this.  To  the  persecuted  martjnr- 
chm-ch,  suffering  unto  death,  it  is  enough  to  say — Be  thou 
faithful !  For,  if  for  their  pmification  after  falling  from  the 
first  love  tribulation  and  shame  came  upon  them,  this  of  itself 
was  punishment  enough,  and  the  Lord  has  nothing  but  conso- 
lation to  give.  Snm-na  is  chosen  as  the  type  of  such  a  condi- 
tion of  the  Chm'ch :  her  name  (iiiyrrh)  speaking  of  the  bitterness 
of  suffering,  but  also  of  balsam  and  costly  incense,  yea,  of  the 
anointing  and  adorning  of  the  bride,  according  to  the  Song  of 
Solomon  (ch.  iii.  6,  v.  5).  Smyrna  was  in  St  John's  time 
ail  important  place,  though  not  eqiial  to  Epliesus;  she  is  the 
only  one  of  the  seven  which  remains  to  this  day,  more  flourish- 
ing and  larger  than  in  the  time  of  the  Apocal}-pse :  hence  there 
is  no  removal  of  the  candlestick  prefigiu'ed  in  her.  She  has 
fom*  Christian  chm'ches;  since  1759  has  had  the  labom's  of 
evaneelical  missionaries,  and  is  now  a  central  mission-station; 
as  if  this  new  blooming  in  the  midst  of  the  prostrate  East 
would  speak  of  the  impeiishable  cro"\vn  of  victorious  life. 

^  The  y.oc]  loov  ^au  d/at  appears  to  us  quite  the  same  as  the  kuI  e^mtv — 
in  both  cases  there  is  a  contrast  with  the  actual  vtKpoc. 

I 


130  THE  EPISTLE  TO  SMYENA. 

To  the  cliurcli  tlius  pointed  to  suffering  and  death  the  Lord 
exhibits  himself  as  the  Conqueror  who  pressed  through  death 
into  hfe.  The  words  which  first  accompanied  the  "  Fear  not !" 
to  the  Seer  are  here  most  fitly  reproduced ;  the  former  part 
of  the  sublime  title  is  unchanged — The  First  and  the  Last 
(finally  recurring  in  this  book,  ch.  xxi.  6,  xxii.  13)  ;  the  second 
part,  which  speaks  of  dying  and  living,  is  condensed  with 
heightened  majesty  into  fewer  words.  He  who  in  His  Divinity 
was  the  First  before  the  foundation  of  the  world,  and  who  as 
also  the  Last  will  remain  the  same  with  and  after  the  last,  will 
maintain  the  victory  through  His  hand  and  jiower  for  His 
people.  He  who  in  His  liumanity,  assmned  for  all  eternity, 
was  for  one  short  space  dead,  and  now  liveth  again  as  the 
God-man,  the  first  who  lived  again  from  death  for  all — He 
may  well  require  fidelity  unto  death  in  order  to  the  promised 
crown  of  life.  Some  would  here  distinguish,  and  say  that  in 
ch.  i.  17,  18  He  calls  Himself  the  Living  tji  sjnfe  of  death, 
while  here  He  liveth  again  after  death.  But  this  is  artificial ; 
it  scarcely  harmonises  with  the  original ;  and  somewhat  disturbs 
the  strong  emphasis  of  the  pregnant  reality — the  having  been 
dead  of  the  Living  One  !  He  was  dead :  this  retains  indeed 
its  continuous  truth,  as  we  continually  celebrate  it  in  the  Sacra- 
ment, and  is  the  theme  of  the  new  song  to  the  Lamb  that  was 
slain ;  but,  at  the  same  time,  we  cannot  too  confidently  and  too 
thankfully  mingle  with  our  Passion-thoughts  the  great  truth 
that  the  Living  was  dead  and  is  alive  again.  An  effeminate 
and  sentimental  Moravian  dealing  with  the  suffering  and  dying 
Lord  would  have  been  very  distasteful  to  the  Apostles  and  the 
early  Church ;  the  New  Testament  Scriptures  give  it  neither 
approbation  nor  nourishment. 

I  KNOW  THY  WORKS,  AND  TRIBULATION,  AND  POVERTY 
(but  THOU  ART  RICIl)  ;  AND  I  KNOW  THE  BLASPHEMY  OF 
THEM  WHICH  SAY  THEY  ARE  JeWS,  AND  ARE  NOT,  BUT  ARE 
THE  SYNAGOGUE  OF  SaTAN. 

This  recurring  testimony  /  hioxo  !  is  so  beautifully  ex- 
pounded by  Bengel  that  we  must  here  at  least  quote  his  words. 
"We  go  from  one  hour  to  another,  from  one  day  and  year 
to  another,  and  what  is  once  fairly  past  in  om'  doing,  and 
omitting,  and  suffering,  is  scarcely  regarded  by  us  any  more : 
it  is  like  water  that  has  flowed  away.     But  into  the  omniscience 


REV.  II.  8-11.  131 

of  Christ  all  things  are  taken  up!"  Yes,  indeed,  the  God-man 
related  to  us  as  the  First  and  the  Last  preserves  in  His  thought 
the  works  which  are  forgotten  by  us,  works  whether  of  first 
love  or  of  unfaithfulness;  He  knows  beforehand  om'  future 
sufferings  as  well  as  our  past,  and  makes  concerning  all  things 
His  gracious  appeal  to  our  souls.  In  this  second  Epistle  there 
is  a  strengthening  of  the  expression  (which,  omitted  in  the 
third,  continues  through  the  rest) — thy  works,  "  thy,"  that  is, 
being  piit  first  with  specific  emphasis.  The  criticism  of  Tis- 
chendorf,  so  rigidly  tied  to  the  manuscripts,  maintains  that 
"  the  words"  are  an  interpolation  here  and  at  ver.  13,  in  order 
to  make  all  the  Epistles  uniform.  Were  this  so,  there  would 
be  indeed  a  very  significant  connection  with  the  preceding 
words : — T,  who  was  dead,  know  well  by  My  own  experience  thy 
tribulation  !  Now,  as  it  respects  ver.  13,  our  internal  criticism 
cannot  dispense  with  the  knowledge  of  the  works  coming  first  (for 
the  mere  "where  thou  dwellest"  is  not  a  sufficiently  emphatic 
object  of  the  knowledge;  nor  is  it  a  sharp  enough  antithesis 
to  the  But  of  ver.  14) ;  and  when  we  find  in  the  uncontested 
text  of  ver.  19,  "I  know  thy  works"  standing  before  four  other 
words  ending  with  "works"  again,  we  cannot  but  conclude 
that  our  Lord's  purpose  was  to  express  this  seven  times  con- 
secutively with  unchanged  emphasis.  But  the  word  must  be 
understood  after  the  analogy  of  Scriptural  language,  and  not  as 
we  might  speak  in  an  isolated  manner  of  "  works."  Smyrna 
presented  her  works  to  the  Lord  in  sitfferings : — that  is  here 
the  pregnant  meaning.  If  her  angel  might  say  in  tribulation 
and  poverty — "  Fain  would  I  also  perform  good  works,  but, 
alas,  cannot,"  the  Lord  testifies  on  the  contrary — "  Thou  art 
rich  in  works  of  patience,  which  are  indeed  the  severest  and 
the  best."  Poverty  must  here  be  understood  of  external  need ; 
and  we  have  record  elsewhere  of  the  poor  state  of  the  Chris- 
tians generally  in  SmjTua.  Moreover,  the  richer  among  them 
took  joyfully  the  spoilmg  of  their  goods  in  the  persecution 
(Heb.  X.  34) — and  the  Lord's  assurance  meets  them  in  love. 
But  thou  art  rich !  For  the  better  and  enduring  substance  in 
heaven,  which  the  poor  and  the  plundered  abeady  possessed, 
maketh  the  poor  rich :  so  we  read  2  Cor.  v.  10,  Jas.  ii.  5 ; 
and  the  Lord  Himself  opposes  to  the  heaping  up  of  treasures 
the  being  rich  towards  God.     But,  if  we  ask  further  whether 


132  THE  EPISTLE  TO  SMYENA. 

Smyrna  was  joyfully  consciovis  of  these  riclies,  the  answer 
must,  we  think,  be  in  the  negative ;  and  this  gives  occasion  to 
remark,  that  the  poverty  must  be  meant,  at  the  same  time,  of 
spiritual  tribulation,  oppression,  and  abasement.  Those  perse- 
cuted unto  death  have  not  been  hasty — with  all  their  faith  in 
the  midst  of  the  fires — with  the  triumphant  note,  "  But  we  are 
the  heirs  of  the  Idngdom,  the  elect  of  God!"  So  far  Smyrna 
exhibits  to  us  the  opposite  counterpart  of  Laodicea.  "  Thou 
sayest,  I  am  rich  !  and  knowest  not  how  poor  thou  art !" — has 
an  evil  sound.  But  "  I  know  thy  poverty,  in  which  thou  art 
rich" — is  precious  in  the  Lord's  lips  for  them  and  for  us. 

Tribulation  and  poverty  are  followed  by  shame;  but  that 
shame  is  an  honom-.  For  the  adversaries  blaspheme  in  a  two- 
fold manner :  they  scorn  the  Lord  Himself  ■  in  His  j^eople ; 
and  they  wickedly  assume  to  be  His  true  people  themselves. 
The  presuming  Jews  are  introduced  again,  ch.  iii.  9,  in  Phila- 
delphia, and  there,  more  evidently  than  here,  in  the  far-reach- 
ing meaning  of  the  symbolical  word.  In  the  first  history  they 
were  actually  Jews  who  generally  appear  as  the  main  authors 
of  persecution  (1  Thess.  ii.  15,  16) ;  Eusebius,  when  he  relates 
the  martyrdom  of  Polycarp  and  other  Christians,  tells  us  that 
tliey  were  so  in  Smyrna  itself.  That  these  Jews  were  rather 
Satan's  children  and  instruments,  the  Lord  Himself  once  told 
them,  John  viii,  44;  here  they  are  called  the  congregation  or 
church,  the  synagogue  of  Satan — instead  of  the  lost,  and  now 
blasphemously  self-asserted,  title  of  "  the  congregation  of  the 
Lord,"  which  they  had  in  the  Old  Testament  (comp.  Ps.  xxvi. 
4,  xxii.  17).  Not  without  design  is  the  word  "synagogue" 
chosen,  in  order  to  meet  the  Judaizing,  still  so  called,  of  all 
futurity.^  But  the  words  point  still  further,  and  are  not  less 
on  that  account  spoken  in  prophetic  type.  It  is  no  more  than 
a  useless  contention  of  the  expositors,  whether  they  Avere  pro- 
perly or  not  properly  Jews :  the  former  holds  good  of  the 
history  itself,  but  as  a  figure  the  latter.  Christianity  alone  was 
from  that  time  the  essential  fulfilment,  the  consummate  truth 

1  In  the  0.  T.  we  have  ix.K'Kr,aic6  for  5^'""'^  t^~'J  or  wn'^ '^^p.  (iu  Neh.  xiii.  1 
S)"'n"';sn  Vrip,  and  Ex.  xii.  3  'S'''^";  '"i^)  csiiecially  in  Chron.,  Ezra,  Nehcmiah 
(as  earlier  in  Deut.  xxiii.  1-3,  xxx.  1-10 ;  1  Kings  viii.  14,  22).  On  the 
other  hand,  in  such  most  ancient  passages  as  Ex.  xii.  3,  Numb.  xvi.  3, 
XX.  4,  xxvii.  17,  the  N.  T.  avvcfyuyv). 


REV.  II.  S-11.  133 

of  Judaism ;  the  abiding  perversion  of  which  blasphemonsly 
still  terms  the  Way,  to  which  the  Law  and  the  Prophets 
pointed,  heresy  and  a  sect  (Acts  xxiv.  14).  The  Jew  in  his 
inner  reality,  in  which  the  prophetic  significance  of  the  name 
Judah  (Gen.  xlix.  8,  xxix.  35)  first  finds  its  full  propriety, 
whose  praise  is  not  of  men,  but  of  God — the  same  Apostle 
tells  us  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  who  he  is  (ch.  ii.  28,  29). 
Thus,  so  far  as  Smyi'na  fmniishes  the  type  of  a  condition  and  a 
period  of  the  Church  in  which  the  Lord's  people,  in  poverty 
and  lowliness,  Avithout  power  and  authority  in  this  world, 
"SAithout  the  help  of  a  fleshly  arm,  are  given  up  to  the  suffering 
of  shame  and  persecution  even  unto  death — the  persecuting 
false  church  must  be  intended  by  the  false  Judaism,  as  far  as 
regards  the  later  period  of  that  position  and  character.  For  the 
Smj'rna-period,  although  it  is  clearly  stamped  as  a  time  im- 
mediately after  the  Apostolical,  yet  both  stretches  backwards 
into  this  latter,  and  simultaneously  goes  onwards  into  later 
periods.  This  is  the  only  exposition  which  will  satisfy  the  whole 
case. 

Fear  none  of  those  things  which  thou  shalt  suffer  : 
behold,  the  devil  shall  cast  some  of  you  into  prison, 
that  ye  may  be  tried  ;  and  ye  shall  have  tribulation 
ten  days:  be  thou  faithful  unto  death,  and  i  will 
GIVE  THEE  A  CROAVN  OF  LIFE.  Smyrna,  the  chm'cli  of  the 
martp's,  receives  enough  in  that  one  word: — Fear  7iot!  be 
faithful !  because  He  who  utters  it  had  overcome  death  as  the 
Forerunner,  and  brought  eternal  life  to  fight.  Even  the  histo- 
rical SmjTna  shines  in  history  with  the  glory  of  her  crowned 
mart}TS,  among  whom  Polycarp  is  pre-eminent,  the  pupil  of  St 
John,  who  was  executed  a.d.  167.  But  to  regard  Polycarp  as 
himself  the  "  angel"  is  an  error ;  for  he  had  scarcely  at  this  early 
period  any  prominence  in  the  chiu'ch,  and  certainly  could  not 
have  lield  that  which  was  afterwards  called  the  office  of  Bishop. 
Oiu'  translation — thou  sJialt  suffer,  the  devil  shall  cast  into 
prison — is  still  stronger  in  the  original :  It  is  appointed,  it  must 
be  so.  That  wliich  the  Divine  comisel,  here  announced  before- 
hand, will  -vrisely  permit,  is  not  to  be  feared,  for  it  Avill  issue  not 
in  destruction  but  in  victory :  therefore  the  first  strong  Avords — 
Fear  none  of  those  things !  It  is  indeed  the  devil,  the  wicked 
enemy  and  persecutor  in   his  instruments,  who   opposes  the 


134  THE  EPISTLE  TO  SMYRNA. 

people  of  God ;  but  there  is  akeady  a  consolation  in  this,  that 
they  have  him  for  an  enemy  who  assaulted  their  Lord  and 
Forerunner,  who  was  judged  by  Him  on  behalf  of  His 
people,  and  who  can  move  no  fm-ther  than  is  permitted  to  him. 
Satan  and  Devil,  the  two  names  of  the  evil  one,  according  to  his 
spirit  and  his  act:  "Satan"  signifies  enemy  and  opposer  in 
principle,  according  to  the  Jewish  phrase,  and  hence  it  is  used 
first  with  reference  to  the  Jews ;  "  devil,"  in  Greek  phrase,  in- 
dicates his  hlasphemy,  persecution,  accusation,  and  stands  here 
in  connection  with  the  work  which  he  wrought  by  the  Gentiles 
at  the  instigation  of  the  Jews.  He  will  not  cast  all  together 
into  J) risen,  but  many y?'om  among  you: — We  have  ah'eady  ob- 
served how  this  shows  that  the  angel  of  the  church  was  not 
alone  addressed  by  the  epistle ;  and  further  remark  here,  that, 
on  the  other  hand,  a  continuous  address  to  the  church,  as  such, 
would  not  have  been  in  harmony  with  the  heart-penetrating 
style  of  these  Epistles,  and  consequently  that  every  church  was 
with  profound  propriety  viewed  as  exhibited  in  one  person. 
Fui'ther,  the  suffering  and  the  test  affect  the  whole  chm-ch,  if 
some  of  her  members  are  imprisoned  and  slain.  That  ye  may 
be  tried,  tested,  and  approved :  this  is  less  the  devil's  design, 
that  they  may  be  ashamed  in  the  test  (Luke  xxii.  31)— than  the 
design  of  God's  permission  and  appointment,  who  will  crown 
those  who  are  approved  (1  Pet.  iv.  12).^  To  the  previous  tribu- 
lation, already  mentioned  in  ver.  9,  there  is  to  be  added  a 
tribulation  of  imprisonment;  but  this  will  have  its  short  and 
nieasiu-ed  period,  and  its  happy  issue.  Ten  days — this  we  must 
not  in  the  ordinaiy  manner  take  as  a  round  number  for  a  brief 
space ;  all  these  well-adjusted  words  have  something  below  the 
surface.  Whether  any  portion  of  the  church  in  Smyrna  suf- 
fered ten  actual  days  of  imprisonment,  can  neither  be  proved 
nor  contradicted;  but  a  ten  days'  tribulation  seems  to  us  too 
slight  for  the  express  prediction,  accompanied  by  the  earnest 
preface — Fear  none  of  these  things !  To  endm'e  ten  days',  and 
more  than  ten  days',  imprisonment,  was  at  that  time  a  veiy  fre- 
quent calamity  of  the  Christians.  Thus  we  are  constrained,  in 
this  strildngly  significant  term  for  Smyrna,  as  often  afterwards 
in  this  book  of  prophecy,  to  observe  a  prophetic  meaning  under- 
lying the  number.  And  it  is  obvious  enough  to  think  of  the 
^  Thus  tlie  'ivcc  Trtipuadiire  gives  the  ground  of  the  fiih^ns  and  /:<,i>.Xn. 


REV.  II.  8-11.  135 

ten  great  persecutions  which  have  been  reckoned,  from  the 
earliest  time  downwards,  as  taking  place  between  Nero  and 
Dioclesian,  whose  most  severe  persecution,  again,  lasted  ten 
years; — and  this  would  give  us  incidental  evidence  that  the 
book  was  written  under  Nero.  Yet,  whatever  may  be  the  fact 
with  regard  to  these  uncertain  historical  circumstances,  the  gene- 
ral meaning  of  this  word  will  assm*e  us  that  all  times  of  tribu- 
lation are  measured  before  the  Lord,  and  that  they  will  be  cut 
short  for  salvation  (Matt.  xxiv.  22). 

AYhether  this  deliverance  from  imprisonment,  from  the  tri- 
bulation of  the  ten  days,  should  issue  in  life  or  death,  was  not 
to  be  matter  of  anxiety  to  them ;  then'  duty  was  to  fear  nothing 
and  be  faithful !  "  In  the  words,  Be  faithful  unto  death  and  I 
will  give  thee  the  cro.wn  of  life !  there  is  so  gracious  and 
sparing  a  fore-announcement  of  death,  that  death  is  not  seen ; 
being  in  the  one  clause  covered  by  the  fidelity,  and  in  the  other 
by  the  cro^vn"  (Eieger).  It  may  indeed  be  said  that  death  is 
included  in  this  "  unto ;"  but  in  death  itself  fidelity  is  no  more 
wanted,  and  such  a  death  demonstrates  itself  to  be  death  no 
more.  Thus  it  is  unto,  altogether  as  in  Matt.  xxiv.  13,  x.  22, 
unto  the  end.  Sm\T:na  receives  the  announcement  of  the  coming 
of  the  Lord,  wiiich  is  wanting  in  none  of  the  Epistles,  only  in 
this  gracious  form  with  reference  to  every  individual,  to  every 
one  of  whom  in  death  the  Lord  comes  with  the  crowoi  of  life 
(compare  to  Thyatu'a,  ver  25,  "  until  I  come,"  connected  with 
the  threatening  of  ver.  23,  "  I  will  give  to  every  one  of  you 
according  to  your  works") ;  Laodicea,  on  the  contrary,  receives 
it  in  the  strongest  and  sharpest  form  of  the  expression — "I  will 
spue  thee  out!"  which  is  then  again  softened  by  the  gentler  in- 
vitation— "I  stand  at  the  door  and  knock !"  Fm-ther,  it  is  only 
for  Sm}T:na,  the  church  which  is  to  be  greatly  comforted,  that  the 
promise  to  the  overcomer  begins  at  once  "svith  the  universal  anti- 
cipating crown}  This  is,  indeed,  in  a  specific  sense  the  victor- 
cro\^^l  of  the  witnesses  unto  blood,  of  which  the  very  name  of 
the  first  martyr  of  Christ  (Stephanus  means  wreath  or  crown) 
was,  as  it  were,  a  prophecy;  but  this  expression,  well-known 
among  the  Christian  congregations  (1  Cor.  ix.  25,  pointing  to 
the  figure  before;  1  Pet.  v.  4,  the  unfading  crown  of  glory; 

^  It  is  something  different  when  the  white  garments  are  appropriated  to 
oniy  a  lew,  in  the  Epistle  to  Sardis,  oh.  iii.  4.. 


136  THE  EPISTLES  TO  SMYRNA. 

James  i.  12,  as  here,  the  crown  of  life),  embraces,  at  the  same 
time,  generally,  the  reward  of  all  approved  conquerors,  as  St 
Paid  speaks  in  2  Tim.  iv.  7,  8  with  due  humility  of  this  croA\Ti 
of  rigJdcoiisness  :  the  righteous  Judge  will  give  it  not  to  me 
alone,  but  to  all  who  love  His  appearing.  A  crown  of  life 
He  gives  immediately  after  death  to  those  Avho  die  saved,  to 
those  who  are  confirmed  in  victory ;  but  only  as  the  pledge  of 
that  crown  of  honour  or  glojy  in  consummate  eternal  life  which 
He  will  give  in  the  day  of  His  appearing,  according  to  both  St 
Peter  and  St  Paul. 

He  that  hath  an  ear,  let  him  hear  what  the  Spirit 
saith  unto  the  churches  :  he  that  overcometh  shall 
NOT  BE  HURT  OF  THE  SECOND  DEATH.  What  "ear"  instead 
of  "  ears "  means  we  have  already  shown ;  but  take  occasion 
now  to  oppose  Bengel's  erroneous  notion :  "  What  is  said 
loudly  is  heard  with  both  ears  ;  what  is  spoken  into  the  ear  is 
secret."  This  is  to  us  unsatisfactory ;  for,  notwithstanding  the 
mysteries  which  are  intermixed,  the  Spirit  cries  aloud  in  these 
Epistles  to  the  churches  with  the  clearest,  most  awakening, 
and  heart-searching  words ;  words  which  have  been  popularly 
applied,  and  universally  preached  about,  in  every  age  of  the 
Church.  To  "  have  an  ear^  for  what  the  Spirit  saith  is  rather 
an  intensification  than  a  weakening  of  the  saving ;  since  it  re- 
quires the  same  spiritual  "  hearing"  for  the  understanding  and 
acceptance  of  these  exhortations,  threatenings,  and  promises, 
Avhich  those  parables  of  our  Lord  required,  for  which  the  Lord 
demanded  hearing  ears. 

The  concluding  promise  for  SmjTna  not  only  is,  like  the 
whole  letter,  of  the  shortest,  but  its  lowered  and  negative  form 
seems  scarcely  in  harmony  with  the  gracious,  unmingled  com- 
mendation. When,  however,  we  look  at  it  more  carefully,  the 
negation  will  be  seen  to  be  most  positive  and  full,  like  the 
sublime  words  before  the  resurrection  of  Lazarus — He  that 
liveth  and  believeth  in  Me  shall  never  die  !  Assuredly,  for  this 
martyr-church  this  was  the  undertone  of  the  words — Though 
the  Ji7'st  death  may  have  hurt  him,  yet  he  that  overcometh  shall 
not  be  hurt  of  the  second.  But  must  we  not  all  die,  must  we 
not  all  press  into  life  by  overcoming  death  ?  This,  therefore, 
is  no  especial  bitterness  for  Smyi'na ;  the  Lord  rather  means 
the  same  comfortino;  and  stimulatine;  word  which   He  once 


EEV.  II.  S-11.  137 

spoke  upon  earth  :  Fear  not  them  wlio  can  kill  the  body,  and 
afterwards  have  no  more  that  they  can  do !  Lulce  xii.  4.  That 
is,  if  in  ver.  5  of  that  chapter  the  essential  enemy  who  is  be- 
hind men — that  is,  Satan  himself — is  meant,  who  hath  power 
and  authority  to  cast  into  his  own  hell,  that  worse  imprison- 
ment, and  therefore  was  to  be  feared ;  so  here  for  the  strong 
encom'agement  of  those  who  are  faithful  and  overcome  it  is 
intimated — This  Satan  shall  have  nothing  more  that  he  can  do 
against  you !  The  second  death  is  a  name  of  eternal  damna- 
tion which  occurs  among  the  Chaldee  translators  and  the 
Rabbins;^  but  throughout  the  Scripture  only  in  the  Apoca- 
lypse. But  it  so  clearly  shuts  out  any  such,  prospect  of  a  future 
restoration,  as  has  been  found  in  this  "  hard  mystery,"  that  we 
are  constrained  to  leave  it  in  all  its  horror,  and  dare  not  seek 
for  any  light  beyond  it.  This  glance  forward  to  the  terrific 
end  of  the  second  death  is  the  antithesis  of  the  paradise  of  the 
promise  to  Ephesus ;  but  it  is  opened  only  for  the  gracious  ex- 
citement and  invigoration  of  those  to  whom  it  is  said — To 
them  that  overcometh  no  harm  shall  happen  from  him;  he 
shall  have  no  more  that  he  can  do!^  Wliether  here  already 
for  the  martyrs  the  first  resurrection  is  indicated,  as  it  comes 
forward  prominently  in  ch.  xx.  6,  we  much  doubt,  since  there, 
as  here,  pre-eminence  cannot  be  intimated  in  that  which  will 
hold  good  of  all  the  saved — The  second  death  (vers.  14,  15 
in  ch.  XX.)  hath  no  power  over  them.  But  this  has  more  signi- 
ficance, when  we  compare  the  other,  final  passage,  ch.  xxi.  8, 
where,  in  contrast  with  this  fidelity  and  its  reward,  the  fearful^ 
that  is,  those  who  hold  not  out  in  the  conflict,  are  threatened 
with  the  second  death. 

A:n^d  to  the  angel  of  the  Church  in  Pergajios 
WRITE :  these  things  saith  He  which  hath  the  sharp 

SWORD  with  two  EDGES. 

Of  this  then-existing  church  we  know  nothing  in  particular, 
and  are  therefore  commended  to  a  consideration  of  the  cha- 
racter assigned  to  it,  and  of  its  prophetic  significance.     Perga- 

1  Deut.  xxxiii.  6.  Let  not  Reuben  die ;  Chald.  ni'J^-s'^  sr:ri-»n'n'3i_ 
Rasclii :  n:^-  sV-vV  ni":^  "'jsi.  Similarly,  Isa.  xxii.  14,  the  Chaldee  brings  in 
the  same  i!:":r  Nn-'^ — and  RascH  says  upon  it  Nan  -S-w.  Kimchi  cites 
stiU  more  plainly  san  aVrsa  losj  t<t<^iz- 

^  Ov  [*.'}]  ocOiKYidri,  as  in  Luke  x.  19,  ovoiv  C/^x;  ov  ,uvi  xliKviai). 


138  THE  EPISTLE  TO  PERGAIVIOS. 

7nos,  a  not  insignificant  city  in  Illyria,  formerly  the  metropolis 
of  a  kingdom  so  called,  contains  in  its  name  a  hint  which, 
more  significantly  than  in  most  of  the  others,  corresponds  Avith 
the  contents  of  the  Epistle.  Castle  or  tower — indicates  the 
period  and  character  of  the  Chm'ch  which  exliibits  her  as 
possessing  earthly  power;  but  is  a  time  of  temptation  and 
danger  to  the  true  kernel  of  the  Church,  so  that  there  spi'ings 
up  the  indolence  which  does  not  resist  the  entrance  of  impure 
morals,  and  the  false  doctrine  on  which  they  are  based.  Why 
the  Lord  here  in  particular  represents  Himself  as  possessing 
the  sharp  two-edged  sword  (ch.  i.  16),  is  easily  seen,  as  after- 
wards explained  in  ver.  16  ;  and  even  with  specific  reference 
to  the  history  of  Balaam,  from  whom  the  typical  designation, 
vers.  14,  15,  of  him  that  defiled  and  seduced  the  Church  was 
derived.  Thus  it  is  against  this  interniLxtiu'e,  with  the  spirit  of 
apostasy  creeping  in,  that  the  Lord  draws  his  cutting,  judging, 
and  punishing  sword ;  in  which  it  is  obvious  further  to  under- 
stand— "  Hadst  thou  in  My  name  rightly  used  My  sword,  the 
sword  of  the  Spirit,  the  judgment  of  ISIy  sword  would  not  have 
been  summoned  against  thee !"  Taking  a  general  view  of  the 
Epistle  at  the  outset,  its  fundamental  traits  come  out  with  great 
distinctness ;  that  is,  if  we  refrain  from  drawing  those  specific 
parallels  with  chiu*ch  history  of  later  times  which  have  led  so 
many  expositors  astray.  The  seat  or  throne  even  of  the  same 
Satan  from  whom  the  persecution  came  to  Smyrna,  is  here  set 
up :  the  God-opposing  power  of  this  world  is  predominant ; 
and,  as  we  shall,  alas,  see,  has  entered  into  an  alliance  with  the 
Chm*ch.  The  cono-reffation  of  the  faithful  has  no  lono;er  niar- 
tyrdom  before  it ;  but  is  only  reminded  thereof,  as  of  some- 
thing past.  Then  formerly  there  had  been  no  denial ;  there 
were  to  the  last  faithful  witnesses  unto  death.  But  now  the 
stumblingblock  of  fellowship  with  idolatry  and  whoredom,  in 
deference  to  worldly  power,  is  not  cast  out,  but  rather  tole- 
rated even  unto  open  doctrine.  All  this  suits  generally  the 
character  which  the  Church  assumed  after  the  persecution 
ended  with  Constantine ;  and  especially  the  Eastern  Christi- 
anity with  its  corrupted  imperial  court  under  a  Christian  title, 
the  influence  of  which  was  to  bind  the  Church  under  a  bon- 
dage of  corruption  and  inertness.  Whether,  moreover,  as 
many  would  have  it,  the  period  of  Pergamos  stretches  only  to 


KEV.  II.  12-17.  139 

Charlemagne,  or  further  on  into  the  developed  Papacy,  is  hard 
to  say  ;  ice  hold  thJt  these  periods  generally  pass  one  into  an- 
other, as  it  respects  both  the  mind  of  the  Spirit  and  the  cor- 
responding history,  and  that  they  should  not  be  limited  to  any 
distinct  epochs. 

I  KINOW  THY  WORKS,  AjS'D  WHERE  THOU  DWELLEST,  EVEN 

WHERE  Satan's  seat  is;   and  thou  boldest  fast  My 

NAME,  AND  HAST  NOT  DENIED  My  FAITH,  EVEN  IN  THOSE 
DAYS  WHEREIN  AnTIPAS  WAS  My  FAITHFUL  MARTYR,  WHO 
WAS  SLAIN  AMONG  YOU  WHERE  SaTAN  DWELLETH.      We  have 

already  given  our  judgment  that  here  also  the  uniform  com- 
mencement, I  know  thy  works  !  is  genuine,  as  a  general  intro- 
ductory testimony.  Wliile  the  Lord  must  blame  the  evil  works 
of  Pergamos,  especially  her  laxity  in  controversy  with  error, 
and  even  her  positive  defilement  with  that  which  was  indolently 
permitted.  He  nevertheless  begins  most  graciously,  as  in  the 
case  of  Ephesus,  yn\h.  calling  to  remembrance  the  good  and 
honourable  Past,  which  had  still  its  value  in  His  eyes.  Still 
more.  He  Himself  finds  a  gentle  apology  for  them  in  their 
perilous,  strongly-tempted  position — "I  know  this  also,  how 
hard  is  thy  situation  and  trial !"  How  graciously  encouraging 
to  Plis  people  in  similar  circumstances  always,  to  hear  Him 
saying,  "I  know  where  thou  dicellest  I"  Not  as  if  this  was 
meant  as  a  justification  of  their  evil  conduct,  because  they 
were  under  persecution  and  oppression ;  but  condemnation  falls 
less  heavily  upon  the  stranger  sojouraing  in  Mesech  and  the 
tents  of  Kedar  (Ps.  cxx.  5),  than  upon  him  who  dwells  among 
the  people  of  God,  in  God's  OAvn  house,  amidst  blessings  and 
peace.  We  must  here  once  for  all  remember  that  these  Epistles 
are  not  directed  to  the  great  mass  of  nominal  Christians,  which 
is  ever  increasing  as  ages  roll  along,  or  to  the  so-called  cluuxhes ; 
but  only  to  the  faithful  among  the  many,  the  society  which 
actually  more  or  less  holds  to  and  depends  upon  the  Lord. 
This  becomes  an  important  consideration  in  the  thu'd  Epistle, 
and  retains  that  importance  throughout  all  the  remainder. 
Hence  it  will  appear  what  Satan's  seat  means  in  its  pro- 
phetical sense.  Fii'st,  indeed,  as  it  regards  the  then  Pergamos, 
which  furnished  the  basis  of  the  symbol,  it  may  have  been  a 
pubhc  heathen  power,  through  which  Pergamos  attained,  in 
its  degree,  to  the  eminence  of   a  metropoHs  of  heathenism. 


140  THE  EPISTLE  TO  PEEGA]\IOS. 

The  learned  refer  to  the  then  celebrated  temple  of  JEsculapius, 
the  "healer  and  saviour" — and  to  the  syliibol  of  the  serpent^ 
as  still  connected  with  the  physician's  art.  Ebrard,  on  the 
other  hand,  thinks  that  this  would  not  have  made  Pergamos 
'worse  than  Diana's  temple  in  Ephesus  (Acts  xix.  27) ;  and 
prefers  finding  Satan's  throne  in  the  Court  of  Judicature  for 
the  Eoman  province  of  Asia,  which,  according  to  Pliny,  was 
established  there.  However  that  may  be — and  we  can  feel  no 
certainty  about  it  —  the  2^'^'ophetic  meaning,  which  takes  that 
only  as  its  point  of  connection,  plainly  refers,  as  it  respects 
the  period  of  the  Church  designated  by  Pergamos,  to  a  no  longer 
jnihlic  heathen  power,  but  a  throne  of  Satan  having  a  Christian 
semblance  and  pretension.  For  thus  much  we  regard  as  cer- 
tain, that  the  epistles  in  some  sense  proceed  onwards  chrono- 
logically. Consequently,  if  first  to  Ephesus  false  apostles  were 
mentioned,  and  then  to  Smyrna  false  Jews,  that  is  (as  we  saw) 
false  Christians,  a  synagogue  of  Satan,  so  now,  according  to  the 
undertone  of  meaning,  in  the  still  increasing  development  of 
corruption,  the  throne  of  Satan  must  mean  something  in  Chris- 
tendom, and  only  something  present  in  it.  We  have  already,  in 
oui'  general  summary,  given  to  be  understood  whither  that  points: 
it  is  the  loorldly  autlwrity  of  the  external  church,  politically 
victorious  and  predominant,  judging  spiritual  matters  in  worldly 
wise,  which — although,  according  to  ch.  xiii.  2,  the  throne  of 
the  dragon  is  to  be  long  afterwards  first  established — the  Lord 
beholds  from  heaven  as  being,  in  its  evil  depth  of  reality,  the 
dominion  of  the  prince  of  this  world.  Compare  the  profound 
saying,  Ps.  xciv.  20  :  Vv'ilt  thou  then  have  fellowship  with  tlie 
seat  of  shame  (throne  of  corruption),  wliicli  establisheth  mis- 
chief as  law  (or  against  the  commandment)  ? 

Intelligent  readers  will  understand  this ;  and  will  discern 
the  mischief  which,  in  its  manifold  forms  as  state-church  and 
church-state,  clung  to  the  system  of  salvation  and  co-existed 
with  it.  The  community  dwelling  in  this  condition  has  praise 
enough  first  accorded:  Thou  boldest  yet  fast  My  name  (comp.  ch. 

*  To  refer  this  to  Satan  is  petty,  and  groundless  according  to  the  double 
meaning  of  this  symbol,  good  and  bad,  which  had  existed  in  all  times. 
The  title  '  AaKkn'^tog  aarvip  seems  more  remarkable,  as  the  heathenish  coun- 
ter-power ;   and  an  ancient  writer  actually  calls  the  city  Kctrilou'Aov  vTrsp 

•ir,V     hot XV  TTXtTOCI/. 


REV.  II.  12-17.  141 

iii.  8),  with  all  tliat  it  contains,  and  hast  not  denied  ^ly  faith. 
The  not  denjang  is  here  already  counted  worthy  of  commenda- 
tion. "  My  faith,"  that  is,  faith  in  Me — but  not  in  the  sense 
of  any  doctrine  of  faith  or  dogmatics,  as  if  (according  to  many 
expositors)  the  Lord  would  praise  the  doctrinal  elaborations  and 
contests  of  a  corresponding  period,  especially  those  of  the  Oriental 
Clim'ch;  while  Plis  eyes  are  looking  everywhere  for  a  very 
different /a{^A  (Jer.  v.  1-3).  But  the  genuine  and  sound  faith 
which  He  means,  as  the  source  of  all  works  valid  in  His  sight, 
is  one  with  fidelity ;  thus  Antipas  is  presently  tenned  the  faith- 
ful witness,  anfl  Smyrna  was  before  bidden  to  be  faithful} 
Was  Antipas  a  historical  person  of  this  name  in  Pergamos? 
The  Ilischberger  Bible  says  correctly,  that  "no  trace  has 
remained  of  him  in  history ; "  for  that  which  is  found  (in  the 
Menologies)  concerning  one  of  that  name  who  suffered  martyr- 
dom under  Domitian,  is  without  trustworthiness,  probably  being 
an  invention  founded  upon  this  passage,  and  fm'ther  embellished. 
The  grave  pointed  out  4:here  is  certainly  one  of  these  deceptions. 
It  is  possible,  however,  that  there  was  an  "Antipas"  who  was 
slain  in  Pergamos  for  the  Lord's  name  sake  ;  and  the  mention 
of  him  would  be  only  an  affecting  condescending  example  for 
all  His  witnesses,  whom  He  knows  and  remembers !  But  still 
it  would  be  the  only  historical  name  in  all  the  Epistles — since 
the  Nicolaitanes  and  Jezebel  are  not  such — and  that  would 
appear  an  improbability.  Probably,  therefore,  it  is  only  a 
t}^3ical  name,  intended  to  signify  generally  the  individual  wit- 
nesses unto  death  (for  the  expression  "witness"  has  already 
here  the  specific  meaning  of  "  martyr,"  comp.  Acts  xxii.  20). 
Holding  this  firmly,"  we  find  the  meaning  of  the  name  (if  it  was 
oi'iginally  an  abbreviation  of  Antipater,  that  does  not  hinder  the 
prophetic  use  of  the  changed  form  !)  very  significant — Against- 
all,  one  who  stood  out  against  the  multitude  as  an  individual 
faithful  confessor.  Such  an  Antipas,  as  we  understand  it,  has 
more  than  once  been  slain  among  you,  lohere  Satan  dwelleth  ! 
The  praise  which  began  now  returns  :  "  I  know  and  remember 
where  tliou  must  dwell,  thoa  oppressed  and  tempted  flock ;  and 
that  where  Satan  dwells  there  is  little  room  for  thee." 

"  In  truth,  thy  position  is  still  most  difficult,  and  thou  comest 

^  In  Greek,  ttigti;  and  •r/aroV  are  from  one  and  the  same  root. 
2  AYitliout  needing  to  resort  to  Hengstenberg's  further  subtilities. 


142  THE  EPISTLE  TO  PERGAJMOS. 

not  unhurt  from  the  danger."  For  Pergamos  was  not — and 
this  is  not  to  her  praise — any  longer  persecuted  Kke  SmjTna. 
The  whole  of  ver.  13  exhibits  the  past,  before  the  But  follows,  as 
to  Ephesus  in  vers.  2,  3.  .  "  In  the  days  of  Antipas  thou  didst  not 
deny — but  now  I  must  rebuke  thee,  that  thou  hast  reconciled 
thyself  too  easily  with  Satan's  throne,  that  thou  hast  made 
perilous  compromise  with  the  impm'e  element  of  worldly  j)0wer 
in  the  chm'ch,  though  thou  hast  not  utterly  fallen.     But  I 

HAVE  A  FEW  THINGS  AGAINST  THEE,  BECAUSE  TIIOU  HAST 
THERE  THEM  THAT  HOLD  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  BaLAAM,  WHO 
TAUGHT  BaLAK  TO  CAST  A  STUMBLINGBLOCK  BEFORE  THE 
CHILDREN  OF  ISRAEL,  TO  EAT  THINGS  SACRIFICED  UNTO  IDOLS, 
AND  TO  COMMIT  FORNICATION.  So  HAST  THOU  ALSO  THEM 
THAT  HOLD  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  NiCOLAITANES."      Zinzen- 

dorf,  in  his  translation  of  the  New  Testament,  translates  as  if 
it  were,  "  a  few  things,  for  example,  the  doctrine  of  Balaam." 
But  what  the  Lord  has  to  say  against  His  churches.  He  ever 
speaks  plainly  and  faithfully  out — not  merely  giving  examples 
of  His  meaning.  The  little^  seems  at  first  difficult;  but  the 
word  is  used,  on  the  one  hand,  to  mitigate  the  blame — only  this 
one  thing;  and,  on  the  other,  with  warning  Severity  to  say — 
Take  good  heed !  Let  this  soon  cease !  for  a  little  leaven 
leaveneth  the  whole  lump ! 

While  the  omniscient  Guardian  and  Warner  of  His  Church 
shows  the  seer  in  Patmos  the  futm-e  under  the  figm'es  of  the 
present,  He  has  also,  after  the  prophetical  manner  (because  the 
testimony  of  Jesus  is  the  Spirit  of  prophecy,  ch.  xix.  10),  the  past 
from  the  beginning  before  His  all-embracing  glance.  Begin- 
ning with  the  Epistle  to  Ephesus,  He  looked  back  to  the  Fall 
and  paradise ;  and  with  this  was  connected,  in  the  Epistle  to 
Smyrna,  perseverance  in  the  view  of  death,  the  first  and  the 
second.  Now  the  backward  reference  of  the  tjfe  proceeds  into 
the  history  of  Israel;  and,  first  of  all,  to  the  time  of  Moses, 
when  the  chosen  and  redeemed  people  was  subjected  to  tempta- 
tion in  the  wilderness.  According  to  the  same  fundamental  law 
of  the  Divine  guidance,  concm'ring  with  human  freedom,  the 
Lord's  New  Testament  people  proceed  in  the  same  way;  so 
fully  corresponding,  on  the  Avhole  and  at  large,  that  a  parallel 
of  the  Old  Testament  times  and  history  with  those  of  the  New 
'  'OTityx  is  ueutral  for  o'hiyov  Tt. 


REV.  II.   12-17.  143 

In  their  entire  development,  offers  us  much  most  important 
instruction.^  Manifold  in  their  ample  application  are  the  types  ; 
to  teach  us  this  the  Lord  makes  prominent  here  a  person  and  a 
history  which  St  Peter  (ch.  ii.  1 5),  and  St  Jude  after  him  (ver. 
11),  have  used  in  the  same  way.  Balaam  was  the  ambiguous 
prophet  external  to  Israel,  from  the  beginning  unfaithfully 
wavering  between  obedience  to  God's  revelation,  and  the  lust 
for  the  rewards  of  unrighteousness.  He  was  warned,  and  yet 
went  Ids  oivn  way;  but  must,  against  His  will,  bless  Israel. 
But  this  vexed  him  all  the  more ;  and  we  read  in  Numb.  xxv. 
1,  2,  xxxi.  16  of  his  cunning  and  revengeful  counsel  to  Balak, 

^  As  suggestive  hints  for  the  reflection  of  such  as  will  pursue  them,  -we 
add  what  follows.  Seven  great  jDeriods,  or  rather  six,  passing  over  into  a 
seventh,  may  be  disclosed  as  corresponding,  partly  by  contrast,  and  partly 
as  parallel.  The  primitive  world  under  Divine  long-suffering,  the  continu- 
ous Fall  down  to  the  first  judgment  of  the  world — primitive  Christendom 
under  Divine  power  of  grace,  continuous  downfall  of  heathenism  down  tc 
the  first  judg-ment  upon  it.  (Noah — Constantine.)  The  preparation  of 
God's  people  in  the  dark  period  of  the  other  peoples  ; — the  preparation  oi 
the  European  peoples — Christendom  in  the  unresting  time  of  the  wander- 
ings of  races.  (Moses — Charlemagne.)  The  kingdom  of  Israel  as  the 
appointed  type,  in  which  dechne  and  perversion  is  developed  and  revealed ; 
— ^the  Eomish  Church  as  the  tolerated  transition,  in  which  we  see  the 
same  decline.  (Nebuchadnezzar — Hildebrand.)  The  Babylonish  period, 
time  of  servitude,  the  time  when  the  empires  of  heathenism  begin  ; — Papal- 
worldly  period,  only  a  waiting  seed  (like  the  two  tribes  of  Israel)  is 
reserved,  the  separation  of  the  European  states  begins.  (Zerubbabel — 
Luther.)  Persian-Greek  period,  building  of  the  second  Temjjle,  the  first 
bloom  of  heathen  culture  ceases  ; — Protestant  political  age,  founding  of  the 
new  Church,  the  first  Reformation  of  national  life  has  the  same  fate. 
(Alexander — ^Napoleon.)  Greek-Roman  time,  advancing  poAver  of  the 
world,  Israel  recedes  before  the  second  bloom  of  heathenism,  general  decline, 
and  most  proper  time  of  expectation ; — missionary  period  and  period  of 
development,  advancing  revelation  of  the  true  Church,  the  second  Reforma- 
tion in  which  Christians  become  predominant,  finally  restoration  (even  for 
Israel  after  the  flesh)  and  the  most  proper  time  of  fulfilment.  Lastly,  as 
according  to  the  ancient  history  the  appearance  of  the  Lord  brings  its  end 
(instead  of  judginent)  to  these  six  days,  so  similarly,  at  the  end  of  the  new 
period,  there  will  be  the  millennial  kingdom,  the  final  appearance  ;  and 
with  it,  at  the  same  time,  the  judgment.  How  the  churches  of  these 
Ejiistles  correspond  to  these  periods  as  indicated  by  them,  must  be  left  to 
the  individual  pondering  of  the  reader  ;  in  this  internal  relation  there  are 
other  points  which  must  be  brought  into  view  ;  but  Thyatira  may  refer  to 
the  Papal,  Sardis  to  the  Protestant  period,  while  Philadelphia  and  liaodicea 
go  in  concurrently  to  the  coming  of  the  Lord. 


144  TUE  EPISTLE  TO  PERGAMOS. 

in  order  to  ruin  Israel  by  seduction,  that  lie  should  set  a 
stumblingblock  in  the  way  of  the  people  of  God, — that  is, 
hterally,  throw  an  offence  in  their  way,  to  be  to  them  a  pitfall 
or  a  snare.  With  this  the  Lord  now  compares  the  people  of 
the  church  in  Pergamos,  who,  favouring  the  Balaam  of  then' 
time  (for  that  is  the  right  reading),  that  is,  for  the  sake  of  the 
worldly  power  before  mentioned  as  the  throne  of  Satan,  seduce 
the  spiritual  Israel  to  infidelity,  yea,  construct  a  formal  theory 
and  doctrine  to  which  they  hold — instead,  as  was  said  before,  of 
holding  to  the  name  of  the  Lord.  The  point  of  comparison  is 
first  exhibited,  even  in  external  reality ;  while  yet  open  heathen- 
ism still  predominated,  the  eating  of  things-  sacrificed  to  idols 
and  fornication  were  the  sins  of  those  who  renounced  not  the 
false  and  seducing  fellowship  with  liim ;  and  this  w^as  already 
foreseen  in  Acts  xv.  29,  though  not  till  1  Cor.  x.  by  St  Paul 
most  earnestly  denounced.  The  eating  at  the  table  of  devils 
was  at  the  same  time  a  spiritual  fornication  and  idolatiy.  Both 
the  proper  and  the  fignu'ative  meaning,  but  rather  the  latter, 
apply  to  the  later  time  which  Pergamos  typified,  since  the 
teaching  and  acting  after  the  manner  of  Balaam,  the  compro- 
mising and  impurely  self -justifying  fellowship  with  the  nomi- 
nally Clmstian  powers  of  the  world,  manifests  itself  both  in 
actual  immorality  and  in  hypocritical  dogmatics  touching  the 
seats  of  Cffisars  and  Bishops,  the  establishment  of  idolatrous 
images  in  the  place  of  God's  pure  worship,  and  so  forth.  But 
we  will  abstain  from  the  special  ecclesiastical  interpretation,  in 
order  that  no  one  may  overlook  that  which  suits  his  own  time ! 

This,  however,  is  clear  and  certain  to  us;  ver.  15  does  not 
distinguish  other  so-called  Nicolaitanes  from  the  Balaamites  (so 
to  term  theni) ;  but  both  are  evidently  the  same.  All  things 
tend  to  this,  when  carefully  considered.  So  thou  ALSO  hast 
— this  so  with  this  also  gives  us  the  interpretation  of  what  had 
been  before  figm*atively  expressed  :  "  Alas,  thou  also,  a  Christian 
commifnity,  hast  retained,  and  dost  not  cast  out,  such  people, 
Nicolaitanes,  as  I  have  already,  for  the  first  church,  plainly 
translated  their  name ! "  "  Who  hold  to  the  doctrine  " — the 
same  formula  is  repeated!  Probably  the  definite  article  in 
"doctrine  of  the  Nicolaitanes"  is  not  genuine;  in  the  original 
it  would  be  the  mere  translation  of  "  Balaam ; "  such  Balaam- 
doctrine,  Nicolaitan,  seductively  overcoming  the  people.      In 


REV.  11.  12-17.  145 

ver.  6  only  the  worhs  were  mentioned ;  but  now  there  has  a 
doctrine  crept  in,  within  the  church  which  tolerated  those 
works  !  The  theory  has  never  been  long  wanting,  in  the  world 
and  even  in  the  Church,  when  the  practice  has  gone  before. 
Finally  (instead  of  the  "  which  I  hate,"  as  in  ver.  6),  stands,  ac- 
cording to  the  more  correct  reading,  once  more  "  in  like  man- 
ner."^ The  "  so  "  at  first,  and  "  in  like  manner  "  at  last,  com- 
bine very  strongly  to  assure  us  that  a  doctrine  of  Nicolaitanes 
is  meant  which  perfectly  corresponds  to  the  doctrine  of  Balaam. 
Repent  theeefore.     If  not,  I  will  come  unto  thee 

QUICKLY,  AND  WILL  FIGHT  AGAINST  THEM  WITH  THE  SW  ORD 

OF  My  mouth.  On  the  perfect  Balaamites  or  Kicolaitanes 
repentance  is  no  longer  enjoined,  but  judgment  is  denounced ; 
but  those  who  were  entangled  with  tliem  are  (with  the  same 
^'  now^'  as  in  ver.  5)  exhorted  to  conversion  in  penitent  change 
of  mind.  So  far  the  denunciation  of  the  fighting  against  them 
apphes  to  the  whole  chm'ch — so  far,  that  is,  as  they  were  in 
and  among  the  church  ;  but  it  is  something  different  from 
saying,  "I  will  fight  against  thee.'^  We  must  understand: 
"  If  thou  dost  not  perform  thy  duty,  and  cast  them  out  from 
thee,  I  will  undertake  it  ^Myself."  The  sword  of  the  mouth  is 
spoken  of,  which  may,  indeed,  include  a  spiritual  judging  and 
restoration  of  sinners  throiigh  the  word ;  yet  we  see  plainly  in 
ch.  xix.  15,  21,  that  condemning  sentence  of  wrath  may 
proceed  from  the  mouth  of  the  Almighty.  The  language  of 
prophetic  symbols  is  ever  comprehensive  for  manifold  interpre- 
tation and  reference ;  and  it  sometimes  retains,  at  the  same 
time,  the  most  specific  allusions,  as  here  the  threatening  sword 
certainly  refers  back  once  more  to  Balaam's  history.  Because 
Balaam  did  not  yield  to  the  word  of  the  Lord,  which  came  in 
his  way  (Num.  xxii.  23,  31) — for  his  "I  Avill  get  me  back 
again"  was  not  sincere ;  the  evil  desire  remained  in  him,  and 
was  at  first  punished  by  being  permitted — we  read  afterwards, 
in  Num.  xxxi.  8,  the  express  reqmtal,  "  Balaam  also,-  the  son 
of  Beor,  they  slew  with  the  sword!"  We  have  it  in  our  power, 
through  penitence  or  the  reverse,  to  decide  how  gently  or 
severely,  whether  in  Avi'ath  or  mercy,  this  sword  of  His  mouth 
shall  judge  us. 

1  This  oy.olu;^  which  many  (Grotiui  and  Bengel)  carry  on  to  the  follow- 
ing word,  has  been  changed  into  &  ^lau^  because  of  the  ov-u;  going  before. 

K 


146  THE  EriSTLE  TO  PEEGAMOS. 

He  that  hath  an  eak,  let  him  hear  what  the  Spirit 
SAiTii  unto  the  churches  :    To  HIM  that  overcometii 

WILL  I  GIVE^  or  THE  HIDDEN  MANNA,  AND  WILL  GIVE  HIM  A 
WHITE  STONE,  AND  IN  THE  STONE  A  NEW  NAME  WRITTEN, 
WHICH   NO    MAN   KNOWETH  SAVING   HE    THAT  RECEIVETH    IT, 

The  oppression  and  imprisonment  in  Egypt — the  persecutions 
and  phigues,  which  in  the  New  Testament  fell  not  upon  Egypt, 
but  upon  Israel — are  now  passed  to  Pergamos;  but  to  her  the  way 
through  the  wilderness  is  appointed  as  a  time  of  probationary 
trial.  As  the  name  of  Balaam  was  taken  from  this  period,  so 
also  are  the  figurative  expressions  of  promise.  The  antitype, 
indeed,  often  corresponds  with  the  type  in  the  way  of  contrast. 
Israel's  manna,  not  yet  the  true  bread  from  heaven,  was  not 
hidden;  but  that  which  Christ  gives  to  the  faithful,  as  the  com- 
pensation of  the  renounced  idol-sacrifices  and  carnal  lusts — not 
properly  the  same  as  the  fruit  of  the  tree  of  life,  ver.  7,  since 
already  before  death  the  foretaste  of  that  is  received — is  a 
spiritual  noiuishment,  known  only  by  experience  to  those  who 
receive  it.^  The  white  stone  has  b^en  variously  interpreted. 
The  ancients  used  sucli  stones  in  voting  and  electing,  as  the 
Greek  verb  shows  ;  and  accordingly  Luther  understood  it  here 
of  a  " good  testimony"  of  absolution — it  might  be  said  also,  of 
election.  Others  have  thought  of  the  little  tablets,  or  stone 
counters,  which  were  given  to  the  conquerors  in  contests,  as  the 
pledge  of  the  prize  ;  and  which  were  also  their  claim  to  public 
support,  thus  connecting  them  with  the  manna  already  spoken 
of.  We  would  not,  indeed,  assert  that  heathen  customs  could 
not  be  used  in  Christian  symbols,  for  1  Cor.  ix.  24-27  gives  a 
decisive  exam2:)le  to  the  contrary  ;  on  the  other  hand,  it  might 
be  regarded  as  not  inappropriate  that,  in  the  letter  to  Per- 
gamos, the  Lord  should  set  His  own  in  opposition  to  worldly 
and  political  marks  of  honour  and  care.  Nevertheless,  the 
name  written  upon  the  stone,  in  connection  with  the  allusion 
to  the  time  of  Moses  which  pervades  all,  decides  us,  in  common 
with  many  others,  to  interpret  it  differently.  But  not  as 
Herder  dees,  who  thinks  of  the  new  reckoning  of  the  people,  as 

'  The  (^w/iiu  dTiro  (to  eat  of),  brought  forward  from  vcr.  7,  we  omit. 

2  The  Jewish  fable  concerning  the  .hiding  of  the  ark  of  the  covenant, 
and  its  being  found  in  the  time  of  the  Messiah,  has  nothing  to  dO'  with 
this  ;  for  in  1  Kings  viii.  9  we  are  told  that  the  manna  was  no  longer  in  it. 


REV.  II.  12-17.  147 

it  were  cliosen  anew,  Num.  xxvi. ;  for  that  would  apply  to  all 
the  rebuked,  and  not  merely  to  the  faithful.  The  white  stone, 
that  is,  in  the  language  of  the  Apocalypse  (eh.  i.  14,  iii.  4,  vi.  2, 
vii.  14),  the  shining  stone,  with  the  name  upon  it,  seems  to  be 
most  correctly  understood  of  a  precious  stone,  ^  with  allusion 
either  to  the  breastplate,  or,  still  better,  to  the  frontlet,  of  the 
high  priest,  and  thus  of  priestly  ornament.  The  book  of 
Revelation  mentions  and  promises  generally  much  that  is  new 
(ch.  V.  9,  xiv.  3,  xxi.  1,  2,  5)  out  of  the  transcendently  fulfilling 
grace  of  the  New  Testament ;  as  the  Evangelist  of  the  Old 
Covenant,  Isaiah,  dehghted  to  point  forward  to  it  from  the  far 
distance,  ch.  xlii.  9,  xliii.  19,  xlviii.  6.  The  same  prophet,  ch. 
Ixii.  2,  Ixv.  15,  Ixvi.  22,  promised  for  Jerusalem  generally,  and 
all  her  justified  residue  of  citizens,  with  all  joined  unto  them 
by  grace  (ch.  Ivi.  5),  a  neio  name  —  new,  like  the  new  heaven 
and  the  new  earth,  which  God  in  the  end  would  make ;  and 
our  book  brings  here  the  nearer  pledge  of  its  fulfilment.  To 
give  a  new  name  had  been  from  the  time  of  Abrahain  and 
Israel  a  symbolical  and  elective  act  of  God,  containing  in  its 
meaning  some  new  gift  or  new  creation,  either  in  the  present 
reality  or  in  prophecy.  The  new  name  for  him  that  overcometh, 
is,  according  to  its  essential  significance,  one  with  the  name  of 
the  new  city  of  God;  and  this  again  is  one  with  the  new  name 
of  the  Lord  Himself,  who  buildeth  it,  and  who  alone  maketh  all 
things  new  (ch.  iii.  12,  xxi.  2,  xix.  12,  comp.  Jer.  xxiii.  6, 
xxiii.  16;  Ezek.  xlviii.  35).  This  still  concealed  name,  which 
the  Lord's  mouth  will  utter  (Is.  Ixii.  2),  as  it  is  termed  a  sign 
and  seal  upon  \\\&  foreheads  of  the  servants  of  God  (Eev.  vii.  3, 
xiv.  1,  xxii.  4),  corresponds  to  the  golden  frontlet  of  the  high 
priest,  with  the  inscription,  "  Holiness  to  the  Lord."  It  is  not, 
like  other  names,  a  mark  to  denote  their  persons  to  others,  but 
a  promise  and  fulfilment  of  that  blessed  and  glorious  state  and 
experience  concerning  which,  as  concerning  the  being  and  glory 
of  the  Lord  Himself,  it  can  only  be  said,  that  no  man  knov»\s  that 
name  but  he  that  has  it — he  that  has  received  it.  Thus  high 
does  the  promise  to  those  who  overcome  in  Pergamos  already 
reach;  as  we  shall  sec  that  throughout  the  Epistles  the  promises 
advance  higher  and  higher,  as  the  counterpoise  to  the  more  and 
more  severe  conflict,- until  in  ch.  iii.  21  the  highest  that  can  be 
^  Which  ■<^7i(po<;  may  mean. 


148  THE  EPISTLE  TO  THYATIRA. 

said  is  said  to  Laodicea, — the  sitting  with  the  First  Overcomer 
upon  His  throne  being  the  sublime  conclusion. 

A^D  UNTO  THE  ANGEL  OF  THE  CHURCH  IN  ThYATIRA 

WRITE :  These  things  saith  the  Son  of  God,  who  hath 
His  eyes  like  unto  a  flajme  of  fire,  and  His  feet  are 
like  fine  brass.  The  same  who  in  ch.  i.  13  was  "  like  mito 
the  Son  of  man" — which  recurs  in  the  still  more  indirect 
and  vision-like  representation  of  His  coming  in  ch.  xiv.  14 — 
calls  Himself,  here  alone  in  the  entire  book,  the  Son  of  God. 
(Comp.  ch.  xix.  13.  This  only,  however,  brings  into  pro- 
minence what  was  presupposed  in  that  other  name.)  Mani- 
festly, it  is  used  not  only  to  exhibit  His  own  despised  dignity 
in  opposition  to  the  shameless  prophetess  Jezebel,  ver.  20,  but 
at  the  same  time  to  oppose  to  the  lyingly  so-called  "  depths  of 
God,"  ver.  24  (only  thus  to  be  explained).  His  own  perfect 
interior  knowledge  of  those  Divine  deep  things  (Matt.  xi.  27). 
The  eyes  of  flame  exhibit  in  connection  with  this  His  omni- 
science as  it  regards  the  secrets  of  men  (Rom.  ii.  16),  the 
Searcher  of  hearts  who  is  prominent  afterwards  in  ver.  23. 
That,  fui-ther,  precisely  here  the  feet  of  fine  brass  indicate  a 
coming  to  judgment,  can  scarcely  be  rejected,  as  we  remarked 
upon  the  appearance  at  the  beginning  ;  but  in  that  former 
passage  this  is  not  the  only  interpretation,  and  in  this  one  it  is 
not  to  be  pressed  too  far.  Treading  down  all  that  opposes, 
and  victoriously  pressing  onwards  —  so  far  all  is  right ;  but  it 
is  questionable  whether  "  staminng  doion  and  hiirning  all  that 
thwarts  Him,"^  and  that  with  allusion  to  Jezebel's  fate,  2  Kings 
ix.  33.^  The  casting  into  a  bed  afterwards,  ver.  22,  is  not  a  tread- 
ing down  ;  nor  is  even  the  smiting  to  death,  ver.  23.  We  think 
that  in  ch.  i.  14,  15,  previously,  the  dark-glowing  brightness  of 
the  feet  was  no  more  designed  to  indicate  hurning  than  the  glance 
of  the  eyes  ;  we  understand  generally  the  resplendent  footsteps 
of  His  advancing  and  irresistible  might :  compare  for  Thyatira 
afterwards,  ver.  26.  That  the  semblance  of  biu^ning  is  men- 
tioned here,  may  be  regarded  as  leaving  in  its  sole  prominence 
the  meaning  of  victorious  power,  without  any  accessory  notion 
of  trampling  or  consuming  by  fire.  These  sj^nbols  must  neither 
be  exaggerated  nor  confused  :  the  treader  of  the  winepress,  ch. 

'  As  we  read  in  v.  Gerlach. 

2  As  Herder,  contrary  to  his  wont,  tastelessly  interpreted  it. 


REV;  II.  18-29.  149 

xix.  15,  comes  not  with  glomng,  biuming  feet;  hence,  while  in  ver. 
12  of  that  chapter  the  eyes,  and  in  ver.  15  the  sword,  are  men- 
tioned again,  the  feet  of  the  previous  appearance  are  not  introduced. 
The  prophetic  significance  of  the  Chm-ch  of  Thi/atira,  to 
which  the  longest  Epistle  was  sent,  appears  the  most  obscure  of 
all,  as  it  stands  in  the  midst  of  the  seven ;  as  obscm'e  as  the 
middle  age  of  ecclesiastical  history  to  our  dim  eyes,  when  we 
attempt  to  trace  the  Lord's  ways  and  dealings  with  His  never- 
failing  Chm'ch.  Certainly  there  existed  at  that  time  in  the 
Lydian  Thyatira,  whence  the  first-fruits  of  the  mission  in 
Europe  came,  Acts  xvi.  14,  a  Christian  chm'ch,^  which,  mider 
the  pressui'e  of  fearful  apostasy,  nevertheless  had  yet  its  faith- 
ful members,  vers.  24,  25.  And,  with  equal  certainty,  the 
stamp  upon  Thyatira  exhibits  to  us  a  progression  of  corruption 
even  beyond  Pergamos,  inasmuch  as  a  ruhng  Jezebel  is  much 
more  than  a  Balaam  cjivine;  evil  counsel.  But  the  detail  will 
follow  in  the  exposition. 

I  KNOW  THY  WORKS,  AWD  CHARITY,  AND  FAITH,  AND  THY 
SERVICE,  AND    THY  PATIENCE  ;    AND  THY   LAST   WORKS  MORE 

THAN  THE  FIRST.  The  original  cannot  be  exactly  translated ; 
for  it  gives  the  pronoun  thy  expressly  twice  to  the  works,  but 
only  once  to  all  the  other  four  intermediate  words  together. 
To  the  love  indeed  corresponds  the  service,  as  to  the  faith  the 
patience  or  continuance ;  yet  the  preceding  two  designations  of 
internal  sentiment  are  more  closely  connected  than  the  two 
designations  of  the  outward  act.^  Judging  from  the  plenitude 
of  the  words  and  the  priority  of  the  love,  which  in  Ephesus 
had  grown  faint,  one  might  at  first  suppose  that  Thyatha  re- 
ceived the  highest  praise ;  but  when  we  look  more  carefully, 
that  appearance  is  removed.  We  see  rather  that  it  is  only  the 
irreat  ffrace  of  the  Lord  which  will  at  the  outset  acknowledge  as 
much  as  is  consistent  with  truth,  as  much  as  the  eyes  of  flame 
piercing  thi-ough  the  evil  signs  may  yet  discern.  That  the 
zcorks,  here  as  everywhere  mentioned  first,  recur  again  at  the 
end,  must,  when  we  connect  with  it  the  rest  of  the  Epistle,  be 

^  According  to  Epiphanius,  many  rejected  the  Apocalypse  on  account 
of  its  historical  incorrectness  in  this  particular.  Bengel  refers  to  the  fact 
that  a  reading,  which  however  is  not  to  be  approved  of,  omits  i)CKhmi»g. 

'  "  There  is  a  reading  which  brings  these  two  more  closely  together: 
liuKoyix'j  Kdi  C7:o,uovyiv,  without  the  repeated  article. 


150  THE  EPISTLE  TO  THYATIILi. 

interpreted  as  somewhat  qualifpng  and  diminishing  the  whole. 
Assuredly,  Tliyatira  has  works  of  love  to  present  to  the  Lord; 
and  where  this  love,  here  graciously  named  first,  exists,  there 
must  be  also  most  certainly  faith :  this  inference  from  without 
to  within  appears  to  be  denoted  by  the  succession  of  the  words. 
That  this  faith,  working  by  love,  by  no  means  denotes  that  ^ 
adherence  to  dogma,  which  in  the  Lord's  sight  has  no  distinc- 
tive value  and  praise,  we  have  already  shown  upon  ver.  13.^ 
The  faith  which  the  Lord  acknowledges  is  never  mere  doctrine, 
mere  confession  :  in  the  connection  and  process  here,  it  is  no  less 
than,  as  in  ver.  13,  the  JideUty  of  faith  holding  fast  to  Him ; 
although  it  would  not  be  right  on  that  account  to  translate 
"/  fidelity  "  simply,  for  the  fundamental  idea  is  always  the  same 
as  the  former.  Service  of  love  does  not  merely  indicate  in  the 
most  specific  sense  benevolence  and  communication,  as  is  meant 
in  2  Cor.  ix.  12,  13  (more  closely  translated,  "  the  presentation 
of  this  service;"  in  Greek,  diahonio);  but  it  means  generally- 
what  we  find  in  Heb.  vi.  10.  Thyatira  exhibited  her  perse- 
verance in  works  of  serving  and  solicitous  love,  which  cannot 
be  presented  in  their  genuineness  without  genuine  faith — hypo- 
critical works  the  Lord  never  could  praise  ! — she  continues  in 
them  so  diligently,  that  the  Lord  even  beholds  the  last  to  be 
greater  than  the  first.  This,  taken  by  itself,  and  thus  compared 
with  ver.  6  preceding,  would  constitute  the  highest  praise  of 
spiritual  growth: — but  how  does  this  consist  with  the  remain- 
ing characteristics  of  that  church,  which  must  however  modify 
its  meaning  1  Is  Thyatira  on  that  account  better  than  Ephe- 
sus  1  or,  can  there  be  a  general  and  real  advancement  in  the 
energy  of  Christian  life  and  work,  even  while  a  Jezebel  is 
guiltily  allowed  place  and  power  ?  An  unprejudiced  considera- 
tion of  the  whole  context  constrains  us  to  adopt  an  exposition 
which,  at  the  same  time,  opens  to  us  the  prophetical  meaning 
of  the  whole.  It  is  obvious  that  the  Lord  addresses  only  the 
faithful  in  and  among  the  community  of  Thyatira.  These, 
partly  seduced,  partly  not  seduced,  though  guilty  of  an  unholy 

^  Ebrard,  therefore,  is  not  correct :  "  Men  may  he  zealous  in  good  works, 
and  even  (as  opposed  to  heathenism)  in  orthodox  Christian  faith,  and  never- 
theless have  a  Jezebel  for  queen  and  prophetess."  Nor  was  this  church 
"  worse  than  any  other ;"  for  we  find  Avorse  in  ch.  iii.  1,  2,  and  agaui  iii. 
15,  16. 


KEY.  II.  18-29.  151 

compromise  with  evil,  may  be,  in  relation  to  the  predominant 
corruption,  onlj  a  very  snlall  flock ;  but  they  are  nevertheless, 
and  they  are  called,  the  Lord's  Church  !  Here  we  should  dis- 
cern, and  learn  to  imitate,  the  mild  judgluent  of  Him  who  did 
not  absolutely  reject  the  legal  zeal  of  the  Jewish  Christians 
who  believed  on  Him,  with  all  its  slow  perception  of  faith,  and 
even  mistrustful  enmity  to  His  Apostle  Paul  and  the  Gen- 
tile brethren.  If  it  be  said  that  those  walked  uprightly  ac- 
cording to  their  best  knowledge  and  ability  in  grace,  we  may 
also  say  that  the  Christians  in  Thyatira,  the  saints  in  the 
finished  Catholic  Church  (for  thither  all  points  in  the  end !), 
practise  pre-eminently  loot'ks  of  serving  love,  as  must  be  evident 
to  all,  and  in  such  a  manner  as  to  put  evangelical  churches  to 
shame.  Shortly  before,  and  again  after  the  Reformation,  we 
see  the  last  Avorks  more  and  better  than  the  first ;  faithful  striv- 
ings after  amendment  of  the  head  and  the  members,  co-existing 
with  deficient  knowledge,  and  a  labour  all  the  more  on  that 
account  zealous.  Many  Reformers  before  the  Reformation — 
those  especially  who  with  all  their  endeavour's  never  broke  with 
Rome,  and  many  earnest  and  most  honourable  labom'ers  after 
the  Reformation,  who  would  not  become  Protestants,  have  their 
share  in  this  commendation.  But  we  would  not  reckon  among  the 
last  works  the  testimonies  against  the  Papacy,  and  make  "  the 
Reformation  itself  the  crown  of  this  period ;"  for  that  would 
be  a  premature  anticipation  here  at  the  beginning,  and  in  ver. 
28  Ave  .have  an  intimation  of  that  end  and  the  reward  of  the 
genuine  and  faithful  of  Thyatira.  At  first  the  vehement  con- 
demnation of  the  predominance  of  the  great  offence  breaks  out. 
Notwithstanding  I  have  against  thee  that  thou 

SUFFEREST  THAT  WOMAN  JeZEBEL,  W^HICH  CALLETH  HERSELF 
A  PROrHETESS,  AND  TEACHETH  AND  SEDUCETH  My  SERVANTS 
TO  COMMIT  FORNICATION,  AND  TO  EAT  THINGS  SACRIFICED  UNTO 
IDOLS.  Here  Ave  must  not  introduce  a  reading  wdiich  Luther  re- 
ceived and  so  translated — a  feto  tilings,  or  a  little  thing  !  For, 
Jezebel's  dominion  was,  as  has  been  observed  already,  more  than 
Balaam's  counsel.  Thou  siifferest  her ;  that  is,  to  do  Avhat  she 
AA'ill,  unhindered  and  unpunished.^  With  all  the  diligent  service 
of  their  benevolent  and  practical  faith,  there  Avas  yet  no  practical 

■•  The  foiin  d'^il;  lias  been  defended  by  Bengel,  as  from  the  form  u,(piu. 
The  reading  lu.;  is  obviously  an  explanatory  gloss 


152  THE  EPISTLE  TO  THYATIRA. 

and  earnest  contradiction  of  godless  power  and  predominant  sin  : 
this  was  a  characteristic  which  we  see  historically  illustrated  in 
the  later  times  of  the  Church,  and  Arhlch  prevented  Thyatira 
from  taking  a  place  on  a  level  with  apostolical  Ephesus  with  her 
first  love,  and  enduring  Smyrna.  A  modern  expositor  makes  a 
strange  mistake  wdien  he  says  :  "  The  longing  desire  for  the  con- 
summation of  the  kingdom  of  G  od  in  the  present  state  of  things 
is  a  sad  but  affecting  aberration  of  overflowing  love."  O  no  ! 
the  wdiore  Jezebel  in  Christendom  seduces  to  open  fornication, 
and  the  sacrifices  of  idols  :  she  springs  from  a  very  different 
origin,  even  as  the  typical  Jezebel  was  the  heathenish  daughter 
of  a  king.  Ebrard  has  correctly  observed  that  the  typical  ex- 
pressions of  the  Epistles  are  chosen  in  historical  progi'ession,  this 
being  taken  from  the  time  of  the  kingdom  of  Israel ;  and,  more- 
over, the  miserable  period  of  Ahab  and  Jezebel  is  chosen,  as  op- 
posed to  the  flourishing  (though  not  ideal,  as  Ebrard  says)  period 
of  David  and  Solomon.  He  perceives  also  (though  inconsistently, 
after  his  earlier  assertions  concerning  the  Nicolaitanes)  that 
this  ruling  Jezebel  (whose  whoredom  and  witchcraft  are  great, 
2  Kings  ix.  22)  could  not  have  been  an  actual  historical  personage 
in  Thyatira.  How  could  a  woman  have  so  taught  and  seduced, 
and  such  doctrine  as  is  described  afterwards  in  ver.  24  ?  We  read, 
indeed,  in  Brandt's  School  Bible  :  "It  was  the  chief  minister's 
own  wife — a  wicked  hypocrite,  Avho  doubtless  deceived  her  own 
husband;"  but  we  regard  it  as  out  of  the  question,  and  utterly 
untenable,  that  the  wife  of  the  bishop  had  literally  in  Thyatira 
seduced  the  community  to  debauchery,  and  that  the  bishop, 
whose  last  works  were  better  than  the  first,  had  leniently  tole- 
rated it !  The  reading  ^Hhy  wife,"  which  Luther  retains,  though 
it  is  not  in  the  ordinary  text,  is  undoubtedly  correct  ;^  but  it  does 
not  of  itself  mean  the  wife  of  the  "  angel,"  because  the  Thou  of 
these  Epistles  does  not  apply  to  the  representative  personally,  but 
rather  to  the  church  which  was  represented  by  him.  As  Ahab 
formerly  -sold  himself  to  his  wife,  to  do  evil  before  the  Lord 
(1  Kings  xxi.  20,  25,  according  to  the  more  exact  translation ; 
compare  Eom.  vii.  14),  so  here  the  typical  expression,  referring 
back  to  him,  runs — Thou  lettest  thy  ivife  rule ;  that  is,  thou 
art  a  king  Ahab,  acting  as  he  acted.  This  Jezebel,  whom  Rieger 
not  unaptly  terms  "  the  female  antichrist  of  the  Old  Testa- 
^  Bengel  says,  -witliout  reason,  videtur  esse  glossa. 


EEV.  II.  18-29.  153 

ment,"  did  not  assume,  if  we  read  her  history  literally,  to  be  a 
prophetess  while  she  was  a  prophet-murderess  ;  but  it  is  in  har- 
mony ^^dth  the  deeper  interpretation,  that  we  should  regard  her 
as  inspired  and  urged  to  her  deeds  by  demoniac  or  Satanic  influ- 
ence. In  the  wider-reaching  meaning  of  this  mystical-prophetical 
personage,  we  slfall  scarcely  err  if  we  think  of  the  great  whore  of 
ch.  xvii.  1,  2,  of  the  spurious  and  lying  church  which  cherishes 
an  apostate  fellowship  with  the  powers  of  this  world,  and  thereby 
rules  over  nations  and  kings, — the  full  reality  of  which  must  be 
sought  in  a  later  futurity,  while  its  prelude  has  been  seen  in  the 
Papacy,  but  not  in  that  alone.  For,  why  should  we  think  only 
of  Home,  and  not  also  of  the  "  holy  synods"  of  the  "  orthodox" 
church  which  forbids  all  missions,  and  encourages  the  worship 
of  saints  and  relics  %  And  are  there  not  others  that  might  be 
included  ? 

The  beginning  of  this  abomination  was  already  indicated  in 
Pergamos,  ver.  14  ;  but  now,  when  it  has  become  a  power  which 
shamefully  veils  its  iniquity  by  the  name  of  God  (as  prophetess), 
lolioredom  comes  first  with  intenser  expression.  Here,  as  there, 
it  is  used  both  in  the  proper  and  in  the  figurative  sense  of  the 
word ;  for,  where  the  reins  are  given  to  the  flesh  in  idolatrous 
apostasy,  the  vilest  debauchery  and  uncleanness  must  be  a  con- 
comitant. The  pretension  to  splendid  sanctity  issues  often  in 
this  miserable  opposite,  as  the  results  of  celibacy,  and  monkery 
too,  have  too  much  shown.  But  the  principal  meaning  is  here 
spiintual  adultery,  of  which  ver.  22  especially  speaks. 

All  this  sets  more  and  more  plainly  before  us  that  interpreta- 
tion of  Thyatira  in  the  history  of  the  Church  which  we  avow  as 
our  own,  though  without  contending  for  it  here ;  and  the  name  of 
this  Lydian  town  might  seem  expressly  chosen,  under  the  direc- 
tion of  Providence,  to  this  end.  It  signifies  et^Tiiologically,^ 
"  zealous  in  sacrifices  or  slaugJiter"  which  may  be  taken  both  in 
a  good  and  bad  sense ;  though,  after  the  analogy  of  Pei'gamos 
and  Laodicea,  we  might  make  the  bad  sense  alone  prominent. 
Fii'st,  the  wicked  sacrifices  which  Jezebel,  persecuting  and 
slaughtering  the  prophets  and  witnesses  of  God  ^and  this  name 
is  sufficient  to  establish  the  ^oint),  are  surely  no  acceptable 
odour  before  the  Lord ;  and  similarly  the  sacrifice  of  the  Mass, 

'  Certainly  from  Svog  and  ciTiipi;;,  inexhaustible,  unwearying;  though 
with  considerable  change  of  the  form. 


154  THE  EPISTLE  TO  THYATIRA. 

with  all  that  it  presumes  and  all  its  results,  is,  and  must  ever 
be,  as  the  Heidelberg  Catechism  rightly  affirms,  an  accursed 
idolatry.  To  unite  with  this  in  one  common  character  and  name 
the  good  works  of  pious  service,  which  ver.  19  previously  praises, 
as  if  they  were  merely  "  consecrations"  and  "  offei'ings,"  seems 
to  us  altogether  unworthy  of  the  prophetical  typology  of  the 
Lords'  manner  of  speaking  here.  Thus  we  cannot  agree  with  the 
generally  enlightened  v.  ISleyer,  who  describes  the  church  of 
Thyatira  as  the  sacrificer  generally,  blending  the  good  and  the 
laudable  with  the  superfluous  and  evil.  He  refutes  himself 
afterwards,  when  he  shows  that  the  word  lying  at  the  root  of 
"  Thyatira"  was  used  specifically  of  the  Bacchic  orgies  and  all 
their  frenzy.^  This,  in  its  mildest  interpretation,  would  lead  us 
to  no  other  than  enthusiastic  fanaticism  and  fanatical  enthusiasm; 
but  the  Lord  Himself  gives  the  right  name — whorish  sacrifices 
to  idols.  Thus  it  is  the  pseudo-sacrificial  church  ;  as  Pergamos 
was  the  false  tower  and  elevation.  As  even  the  faithful  in  Per- 
gamos receive  their  name  from  dwelling  there,  where  this  falsely 
exalted  seat  of  Satan  was,  so  we  need  not  be  astonished  that 
similaidy  Jezebel,  with  her  shameful  offerings,  must  give  her 
name  to  the  church  held  fast  under  her  power.  Although  the 
Lord's  justice  distinguishes  this  church  from  Jezebel  herself;  and 
condemns  her  only  for  this,  that,  with  much  otherwise  praise- 
worthy, she  tolerated  Jezebel. 

And  I  GAVE   HEK  SPACE  TO    EEPENT  ;    AND  SHE  WILL  NOT 

REPENT  OF  HER  FORNICATION.  This  is  the  Original,  and  not  as 
in  our  translation.  The  limit  assigned  by  forbearance  is  very  dis- 
tant, as  history  has  shown  us  ;  and  in  a  certain  sense  it  is  not 
vet  reached,  though  Sardis  has  been  in  existence,  and  the  be- 
ginning of  Philadelphia  has  appeared.  To  Pergamos  it  was 
threatened,  "  I  come  quicldy ;"  but  here,  on  the  contrary,  there 
is  the  prediction  of  a  long  delay  of  judgment.^  But  this  patience 
— the  Lord  says  beforehand — will  by  the  ungodly  be  perverted 
to  license  :  she  only  hardens  herself  in  consequence,  and  will 
persistently  not  repent.  Is  it  not  as  if  this  was  a  prophecy  of 
the  notorious  consistency  of  the  never  retrogressive  Papacy,  and 

^  &viiv^  primarily  equivalent  to  raging,  being  inspired^  etc.  ;  the  substai.- 
tive  being  used  in  the  same  meaning,  and  then  incense,  offering. 

^  For,  ■)cp6vo;  is  always  a  relatively  long  space  ;  hence  it  is  equivalent  to 
continuance^  or  delay. 


REV.  II.  ]8-20.  155 

of  all  establislicd  ecclesiastical  systems  like  her  in  secular  cor- 
ruption ?  But  the  punishment  will  not  fail  in  this  lengthened 
delay  ;  it  is  already  announced  in  its  preludes. 

"Behold,  I  cast  her  into  a  bed,  and  those  that  commit  adultery 
with  her  into  great  tribulation,  except  they  repent  of  her  deeds ; 
and  her  children  I  will  smite  with  death"  (literally,  in  the  death). 
To  Thyatira  and  Laodicea  only,  the  exhortation — which  is  never 
altogether  wanting — begins  in  connection  with  a  preliminary 
threatening.  Indeed,  for  Jezebel,  supposed  to  be"  impenitent, 
and  therefore  not  exhorted  to  repentance,  the  judgment  here 
spoken  of  holds  good  :  but  not  only  for  her,  for  them  also 
who  by  their  own  fault  and  folly  have  been  perverted  with  her; 
although  for  them  it  follows  more  gently — If  they  repent  not. 
The  bed  of  whoredom  shall  be  tui'ned,  as  the  natural  conse- 
quences of  debauchery  abundantly  t^'j^ify,  into  a  bed  of  pains 
and  plagues,  into  which  the  Lord  as  Judge  will  cast  them  in 
His  time,  so  certainly  that  it  is  already  spoken  of  as  in  the  pre- 
sent time — Behold,  I  cast  them  !^  Job  xxxiii.  19  and  Isa.  xxviii. 
20  are  parallel  for  the  figurative  expression.  The  Teachers' 
Bible,  which  we  have  already  quoted,  says  here  most  strangely : 
*•  The  seducer  was  present  when  all  this  was  publicly  read  in  the 
church,  and  may  well  have  been  smitten  with  sickness  on  hear- 
ing it."  Whatever  calamity  may  have  befallen  the  historical 
Thyatira,  as  a  sudden  judgment,  the  chief  meaning  here  refers 
to  a  veiy  different  fulfilment  of  the  word.  Those  who  commit 
adultery  with  Jezebel — here  manifestly  figurative — are  by  no 
means  one  with  Jezebel  herself,  as  if  this  was  only  the  collective 
name  for  the  guilty.  For,  as  we  have  said,  the  provision  for 
their  repentance,  in  order  to  the  tm'ning  away  of  the  judgment, 
distinguishes  them  from  the  essential  evil  power  and  corruption 
itself ;  and,  again,  these  adulterers  are  to  repent  of  her  Avorks, 
that  is  of  Jezebel's,  which  indeed  have  become  their  own.  Once 
more,  not  altogether  the  same  with  themselves  are  lier  children, 
begotten  of  adulterers  and  the  great  harlot  (so  that  here,  as  in 
Isa.  Ivii.  3,  the  mother  is  the  stem), — that  is,  the  brood  of  Jezebel 
growing  up  and  thriving  in  successive  and  progressive  connip- 
tion.    These  become  naturally  worse  than  their  fathers,  the  first 

^  The  needlessly  emphatic  syw  is  spurious  ;  nor  is  it  to  be  corrected  into 
/3«Aii),  either  here  or  ver.  2-i,  although  the  Epistles  do  everywhere  promise 
and  thi'eaten  in  the  future,  and  oiTroKrevu  follows. 


156  THE  EPISTLE  TO  THYATIRA. 

adulterers  ;  so  that  again  we  find  to  tliese,  without  any  "  if  they 
repent  not,"  certain  death  f  oreannounced.^  The  righteous  Judge 
leaves  nothing  unpunished  ;  but  measures  out  to  each  His  judg- 
ment according  to  the  degree  of  guilt.  In  the  killing  we  are 
scarcely  to  think  of  the  slaughter  of  the  seventy  sons  of  Ahab, 
2  Kings  X.  7  ;  for,  these  were  not  all  the  sons  of  the  one  mother 
Jezebel  (any  more  than  the  seventy  sons  of  Gideon,  Judg.  ix.  5, 
were  the  fruit  of  one  marriage),  nor  were  they  adulterously  be- 
gotten to  Ahab.  A  comparison  has  been  more  plausibly  insti- 
tuted with  the  vengeance  predicted  on  children  in  the  Old  Tes- 
tament, such  as  Ps.  cxxxvii.  9  ;  2  Kings  viii.  12;  Isa.  xiii.  16; 
Nahum  iii.  10  ;  though  it  is  merely  the  strong  expression  of 
"  killing"  which  has  occasioned  it.  The  words  are  plain  enough, 
without  any  such  collation  of  other  passages :  the  bed  and  the 
killing  belong  to  each  other  ;  the  one  illustrates  the  other,  since 
the  couch  of  pain  and  tribulation  ends  with  death  and  destruc- 
tion, that  is,  for  the  children  as  well  as  for  the  mother.  As  to 
the  fulfilment  of  all  this  in  the  history  of  the  Church,  we  can 
only  say  that  the  further  into  the  distance  the  prophecies  recede, 
the  more  difficult  it  is  to  point  to  the  definite  fulfilment  in  facts. 
We  agree  generally  with  v.  Meyer,  who,  without  foreclosing  what- 
ever else  the  future  may  bring,  regards  this  threatening  to  Thya- 
tira  as  already  variously  fulfilled  in  preliminary  judgments,  both 
in  the  Eastern  and  the  Western  Church :  in  wars  and  divisions, 
in  Mohammedan  victories,  in  afflictions  and  losses  of  every  kind 
which  have  befallen  the  dominant  "  church"  down  to  our  times. 
The  final  bed  of  plagues,  indeed,  in  which  Jezebel  will  be  more 
closely  pressed  than  she  has  ever  yet  been,  and  have  no  longer 
the  power  to  stretch  herself  out  and  turn,  the  future  has  yet  to 
bring  :  for  Thyatira,  alas !  still  continues ;  the  various  charac- 
teristics of  this  midmost  form  of  the  Church,  as  they  are  de- 
veloped by  time,  run  together  through  history  more  evidently 
than  those  of  any  of  the  others. 

Very  aptly,  as  a  hint  for  this  interpretation,  meets  us  the 
additional  clause,  here  alone  thus  enlarged :    And   all  the 

CHURCHES  SHALL  KNOW  THAT  I  AM  He  WHICH  SEARCHETH 
THE  REINS  AND  HEARTS  :    AND  I  WILL  GIVE  UNTO  EVERY  ONE 

OF  YOU  ACCORDING  TO  YOUR  WORKS.      Thyatira  lay  about 

'  Meyer  understands  actual  cliildrcn,  who  would  be  hidden  by  death  from 
greater  evil ;  but  this  mixes  up  too  much  the  literal  and  the  figurative. 


EEV.  IT.  18-29.  157 

tlie  middle  of  the  typical  circle  of  the  Seven  ;  what  befell  in  her 
was  known  all  round.  So  the  approaching,  and  at  last  decisive 
judgment  upon  the  ecclesiastical  economy  typified  by  Thyatira, 
is  before  the  eyes  of  all  the  others,  as  it  Avere,  after  each  of  the 
seven  forms  of  the  Church.  Therefore  we  have  the  additional 
clause  concerning  the  final  general  judgment,  of  which  this  will 
be  a  type  and  awful  warning,  with  the  AveU-known  Old  Testa- 
ment formula,  which  recurs  in  ch.  xx.  12,  13,  xxii.  12 — To 
every  man  according  to  his  ivorhs  I  To  every  man  among  you  : 
here  the  address  is  changed,  and  the  view  is  extended  beyond  the 
indiA'idual  Epistle  to  include  all  the  chxirches ;  ver.  24  return- 
ing again  to  the  particular  you  for  Thyatira.  According  to  ch. 
xix.  1-6,  the  hosts  and  elders  in  heaven  extol  the  judgments  of 
God,  with  the  first  and  only  "  Halleluiah"  of  the  Apocalypse 
and  of  the  New  Testament,^  that  He  had  condemned  the  great 
whore  !  But  in  the  judgment  is  revealed  the  Seaixher  of  hearts  ; 
and  Jesus  Christ  will  reveal  Himself  as  such  !  In  the  Old  Tes- 
tament this  sublime  and  penetrating  title  (also  speaking  of  the 
reins  and  hearts,  that  is,  the  desires  and  tlie  thoughts)  occurs, 
of  course,  only  of  God :  e.g.,  Ps.  vii.  10 ;  Jer.  xi.  20,  xii.  3 ; 
also,  in  connection  watli  the  judgment,  and  just  as  here,  Jer. 
xvii.  10 ;  Prov.  xxiv.  12.  All  the  churches  have  indeed  long 
known  that  He  whom  they  call  the  Lord,  this  Searcher  of 
hearts  and  Judge,  is  one  and  equal  Avitli  the  Father.  They  have 
known  it,  but  have  not  sufficiently  understood  and  remembered 
it :  therefore  the  Lord,  who  had  named  Himself  before,  ver.  18, 
the  Son  of  God,  significantly  says  here  :  "  They  shall  know  that 
I  am  He  !"  Which  threatening  of  judgment  once  more  com- 
bines tenderness  with  its  severity :  "  I  Avill  assru'edly  look  at  the 
hea7't,  and  only  according  to  the  heart  estimate  the  deeds." 

Of  this  He  gives  at  the  same  time  a  proof,  when  He  graci- 
ously returns  to  the  oppressed  and  burdened  of  Thyatira,  who 
can  stand  through  their  fidelity  to  Him,  and  to  the  little  centre 
of  believers  already  praised  in  ver.  19  as  existing  even  under 
the  Jezebel  government.  But  unto  you  I  sat,  the  rest  in 
Thyatira,  as  many  as  have  not  this  doctrine,  and  HiVte 

NOT  KNOWN  the  DEPTHS  OF  SaTAN,  AS  THEY  SPEjUC  :  I  W  ILL 

PUT  UPON  YOU  NONE  OTHER  BURDEN.     The  reading  and  in- 
terpretation "  unto  you  and  unto  the  rest "  is  incorrect ;  for  who 
'  Compare  tlie  first  time  in  the  Old  Testament,  in  Pa.  civ.  35. 


158  -  THE  EPISTLE  TO  THTATIRA. 

could  be  referred  to  over  and  above  those  who  were  addressed '? 
The  rest  are  rather  all  who  stand  before  the  gentle  yet  severe 
judgment  of  the  Lord,  whom  the  Searcher  of  all  hearts  knows 
to  be  His  ovm  in  Thyatira,  and  whom  therefore  He  thus  terms, 
as  in  the  case  of  Sardis  also,  ch.  iii.  2.  The  protesting  minority, 
hidden  for  the  most  part  from  the  eyes  of  men,  was  the  saved 
"remnant"  according  to  the  election  of  grace,  mighty  in  them, 
corresponding  to  the  Seven  Thousand  of  the  time  of  Elias 
(Rom.  xi.  2-5).  To  these  belong  all,  exactly  numbered  in  the 
Lord's  "  as  many  as,"  who  have  not  and  do  not  hold  tliat  doc- 
trine of  ruin ;  although  even  they,  as  was  said  before,  too  gene- 
rally tolerate  it,  and  there  is  no  zealous  prophet  Elijah  among 
them.  And  how  was  that?  Because  they  have  not  knoion^ 
that  which  the  Lord  alone  can  know  as  in  its  depths  Satanic. 
Ebrard  lumaturally  refers  the  clause,  "  as  they  say,"  to  the 
Christians  of  Thyatira  themselves,  while  he  condemns  the  com- 
mon exposition  ("  as  those  who  hold  the  doctrine  call  it ")  as 
unnatural.  But,  were  that  the  case,  we  should  certainly  expect, 
after  the  address  with  "  but  I  say  unto  you,^^  and  so  much  other 
reference  to  the  persons  spoken  to,  that  the  recognition  of  their 
right  sentiment  would  also  be  introduced  by  a  personal  address, 
"  as  ye  rightly  term  it."  Moreover,  the  entire  character  of  the 
Church  of  Thyatira  does  not  prepare  us  to  expect  among  them 
any  such  decisive  testimony  against  Jezebel.  Assuredly,  these 
"  remaining  ones  "  here,  that  is,  all,  as  many  as  do  not  hold  this 
doctrine,  are  not  entirely  distinguished  from  that  "  main  bulk 
of  the  church  which  tolerated  Jezebel's  evil  doings ;" — they  are 
the  same,  those  which  were  before  commended,  ver.  19,  though 
certainly  the  best  portion  of  them.  Thus  these  were  not  they 
who  "  boldly  condemned  these  doings  as  Satanic,  and  opposed 
Jezebel  as  Elijahs."  But  we  must  understand  them  to  be,  as 
a  consideration  of  history  will  show,  those^  men  (the  sympa- 
thising High  Priest  calls  them  servants  of  God,  and  in  ver.  20 
His  servants,  embracing  the  seduced  in  common),  pious  Catho- 
lics, before  and  after  the  Reformation,  Asdio  nevertheless,  like 
even  John  PIuss,  were  so  blinded  by  Jezebel,  that  they  enter- 
tained no  doubt  of  the  Divine  institution  of  the  Papacy,  but 
supposed  rather  that  such  an  institute  was  necessary  for  the 
unity  of  the  Church,  for  the  preservation  of  apostolical  tradi- 
tion, and   for  the  certain  interpretation  of  Scriptiu'e.      The 


EEV.  II.  18-29.  159 

Lord,  indeed,  plainly  declares,  that  wliile  they  are  not  seduced 
by  this  doctrine,  and  have  it  not  in  its  practical  consequences, 
do  not  teach  the  essential  evil  which  was  connected  with  it, 
yet  they  are  at  least  deceived  concerning  it,  since  they  do  not 
know  its  evil  ground,  and,  in  spite  of  all  that  obviously  might 
have  taught  them,  have  not  discerned  its  essential  sin.  They 
are  those  who  have  not  been  initiated  into  the  abysmal  corrup- 
tion ;  and  tlierefore,  through  this  lack  of  insight,  have  been 
preserved  and  saved.  In  these  pregnant  words  the  emphasis 
lies  upon  the  "  depths  ;"  this  is  the  third  and  final  denomination, 
after  the  synagogue  of  Satan  in  Smyrna,  and  the  seat  of  Satan 
in  Pergamos ;  noAV  first  is  the  perfectly  perverted  anti-Christi- 
anity arisen  from  these  depths  as  a  doctrine  and  a  power.  The 
expression  connects  itself  with  manifestations  of  the  apostolical 
age,  in  which  the  mystery  of  iniquity  was  already  beginning  in 
its  pre-intimations  to  work  (2  Thes.  ii.  7).  Those  fleshly  Gnos- 
tics built  their  adulterous  life  upon  high-flown  theories  of  a  so- 
called  knowledge,  and  talked  about  " the  deep  things  of  God" 
which  the  Spirit  had  revealed  unto  them  (1  Cor.  ii.  10).  To 
us  it  is  by  no  means  unnatural,  in  the  concise  phrase  which 
must  be  understood  by  the  whole  connection,  that  the  Lord  cor- 
rectingly  terms  their  so-called  deep  things  (which  word  alone,  as 
we  have  said,  is  here  in  question)  the  depths  of  Satan;  and 
thus  refers  the  clause  "  as  they  speak  "  only  to  the  former  Avord 
of  the  two: — As  they  babble  in  their  perversion  concerning 
(but  He  will  not  take  into  His  lips  their  blasphemous  lie)  the 
deep  things  "  of  God." 

Suffice,  that  the  rest  in  Thyatirahave  not,  on  the  one  hand — 
and  this  was  sufficient  for  their  salvation — knoion  these  dej^ths, 
in  the  sense  of  the  falsely-vaunted  knowledge  of  the  prophets 
and  instruments  of  Jezebel ;  while,  on  the  other,  they  have  not, 
in  another  sense,  understood  and  penetratingly  perceived  that 
they  were  the  depths  of  Satan  and  not  the  deep  things  of  God. 
They  have  indeed,  accprding  to  the  degree  of  their  knowledge 
and  in  part,  withstood  the  influx  of  the  evil, — so  much  was 
true ;  but,  on  that  very  account,  because  they  regarded  the 
error  of  doctrine,  and  the  wickedness  of  life,  as  no  more  than 
evil  which  was  built  upon  a  good  foundation,  and  therefore  did 
not  break  with  the  fundamental  power  and  the  fundamental 
doctrine  itself, — they  were  very  hard  put  to  it  in  such  a  con- 


160  THE  EPISTLE  TO  THYATIEA. 

flict  with  Jezebel,  and  much  more  heavily  troubled  than  if 
their  opposition  had  been  pure  and  perfect.  This  their  Lord 
knows,  and  therefore  .says  to  them  graciously :  "  I  put  not  upon 
you  any  other  burden  !  That  it  is  not  My  will  to  do. — Thus  do 
I  not  (in  the  correct  reading)  ;  be  assured  that  I  do  not  so  deal 
with  those  who  are  akeady  plagued  and  oj)pressed."  We  must 
understand — "  no  other  burden  "  (as  if  for  visitation  upon  your 
failure  to  know  the  evil  depths)  "  besides  that  harassing  op- 
pression under  which  ye  are  held  by  Jezebel's  j)ower."^ 

But    THAT    WHICH   YE   HAVE,   HOLD  FAST    TILL   I  COME  ! 

Not  (though  there  is  such  an  exposition  cm*rent)  — "  The 
burden  which  you  have,  and  besides  which  I  will  lay  uj)on  you 
none  other!"  Ch.  iii.  11  teaches  us  how  to  understand  it: 
"That  gift  of  grace  which  ye  have  received  from  Me  hold 
fast,  and  in  it  abide  faithful."  The  coming  of  the  Lord  is  not 
only  death,  as  it  i*egards  every  individual  (ver.  10)  ;  but,  'v\ith 
reference  to  the  whole,  also  the  judicial  coming  to  judgment 
and  separation,  as  spoken  of  in  ver.  23.  The  Lord  here  speaks 
of  that  coming  with  a  designed  indefiniteness,  ^  because  gene- 
rally His  judgment  upon  Thyatira  was  being  variously  accom- 
plished in  preparatory  displays.  But  it  is  not  His  design  ex- 
pressly to  say  that  the  duration  of  this  church  wovxld  extend 
to  His  final  coming.  Let  it  be  observed  that  to  these  "  the 
rest,"  not  repentance,  but  holding  fast,  is  spoken  of.  Thus 
there  is  a  threefold  distinction  :  Jezebel  herself  is  hardened, 
and  will  not  repent,  as  was  already  said  ; — all  who  commit 
adultery  with  her  are  yet,  ver.  22,  exhorted  to  repentance  ; — 
finally,  this  residue,  this  better  j)art,  this  small  minority,  needs 
not  that  exhortation.  With  these  last  is  connected  the  promise: 
And  he  that  oveecometh,  and  keepeth  IsIy  works  unto 
the  end,  to  him  will  i  give  power  over  the  nations. 
And  he  shall  rule  them  with  a  rod  of  iron;  as  the 
vessels  of  a  potter  shall  they  be  broken  to  shivers  ; 

1  The  interpretation  found  in  Herder  is  manifestly  incorrect :  "  I  will 
not  upon  you  cast  a  stramje  burden,  not  reckon  to  you  others'  sins  !"  That 
cannot  be  the  meaning  of  oi'hT^o  ;  comp.  1  Tim.  v.  22.  Nor  is  jiapo;  a  com- 
mandment or  i:)rophctical  utterance,  as  if  the  Lord  used  a  phraseology  which 
was  denounced  in  Jer.  xxiii.  33-38. 

2  But  the  oiv  is  not  a  mark  of  indefiniteness,  as  has  been  said  ;  it  is 
only  a  strengthening  in  connection  with  cixpii  ol  or  twf,  as  often  elsewhere ; 
see  1  Cor.  xv.  25. 


REV.  II.  18-29.  161 

EVEN  AS  I  RECEIVED  OP  My  FatHER.  AjSfD  I  WILL  GIVE 
HIM  THE  MORNING  STAR.  He  THAT  HATH  AN  EAR,  LET 
HIM  HEAR  WHAT  THE  SpIRIT  SAITH  UNTO  THE  CHURCHES. 

My  works,  saitli  the  Lord^  instead  of  those  works  of  dark- 
ness :  "  the  works  which  are  well-pleasing  to  !Me ;  the  works  of 
love  and  faith,  of  service  and  patience,  wrought  through  My 
grace — as  before  said.  That  is  what  ye  miist  have,  and  hold 
fast ;  these  are  yonr  works,  according  to  which  I,  the  Judge, 
will  deal  with  you.  The  power  is  Mine ;  the  reward  is,  pro- 
perly spealdng,  your  benefit :  yet  it  mil  be  the  actual  reward 
of  the  faith  which  received,  and  of  the  fidelity  which  held  fast 
and  overcame."  Noio,  the  "  imto  the  end,"  as  it  respects  the 
individuals,  is  the  same  with'  "  unto  death,"  ver.  10.  Because 
Thyatu'a  had  ^vi'ongly  anticipated  the  kingdom  of  the  Lord, 
and  perverted  it  to  sinful  dominion,  the  reward  of  those  who 
overcome  is  in  opposition  described  as-  the  true  poiver  over  the 
nations,  as  the  symbolical,  prophetical  word  promised  it  to  the 
Son  of  God,  for  the  antitype  and  fulfilment  of  the  kingdom  of 
David.  Ps.  ii.  6-9.  That  which  is  there  the  sceptre  of  the 
kingdom,  is  here  translated  into  staff  or  rod.  The  saying  of 
the  Psalm  recurs  twice  more,  ch.  xii.  5,  xix.  15,  and  as  here, 
according  to  the  ancient  Greek  version,  "  He  will  pasture  them 
with  it,"  although  the  Hebrew  text  speaks  of  hreaJcing  in  pieces, 
even  in  the  first  member  of  the  sentence.  The  Hebrew  word 
contains  in  its  root  a  double  allusion,  including  that  of  feeding ; 
and  the  translation  which  arose  out  of  that  fact  may  be  retained 
in  order  to  indicate,  in  conformity  with  the  meaning  here,  that 
both  are  included  —  as  well  the  final  destroying  judgment  of 
wrath  upon  the  ev"il-doers,  as  the  "\dctory  of  the  power  of  grace 
which  opposes  in  order  to  salvation,  and  thus  brings  into  the 
fold  of  the  Good  Shepherd.  Both  are  referred  to  in  the  pro- 
mise of  this  passage,  but  especially  the  imling  which  wins  and 
saves,  as  it  is  abundantly  promised  to  the  partakers  of  the  first 
resmi'ection,  in  a  final  kingdom  of  the  Lord  upon  earth,  ch.  xx. 
4,  and  finally  in  ch.  xxii.  5.  That  which  Ps.  cxlix.  6-9  fore- 
announces  concerning  the  honour  of  God's  saints,  that  they  shall 
rule  and  bind  the  nations,  means  assuredly,  first  of  all,  as  ver.  6, 
rightly  -vdewed,  gives  us  to  understand,  tlie  office  of  the  word  and 
Spirit  as  opposed  to  the  unbelief  of  the  world ;  although  the 
final  judgment  is  assuredly  not  excluded :  compare  Wisd.  iii.  8 

L 


162  THE  EPISTLE  TO  THYATIRA. 

and  Ecclus.  iv.  16  (more  strictly  translated,  "who  shall  judge 
the  Gentiles  ")  with  1  Cor.  vi.  2.  What  the  relation  of  these 
promises  is  to  the  time  of  the  end,  and  before  the  end,  we  can 
now  only  forecast  in  a  very  general  way,  and  define  only  by 
negations.  That  power  over  the  nations  is  here  held  out  to 
those  who  overcome  as  a  reward,  and  in  contrast  with  the  false 
power  which  had  been  arrogated,  is  very  plain.  But  we  can- 
not see  that  there  is  in  it  a  special  severity  and  keenness,  in  con- 
formity with  the  strain  of  the  whole  Epistle :  for,  first,  the 
Epistle  is  full  of  gracious  encouragement  to  the  believers  ;  and, 
secondly,  the  promised  power  is  by  no  means  intended  merely 
of  destroying  judgment.  Herder,  therefore,  commits  a  twofold 
mistake,  when  he  says  that  "even  the  reward  in  that  Avorld 
is  in  harmony  with  this  character,  quite  in  the  spirit  of  Elias, 
rigorous  and  destructive."  For,  of  that  world,  in  which  there 
will  be  nothing  to  destroy,  nothing  is  here  said ;  and,  moreover, 
our  Lord  obviates  all  such  misunderstanding  of  the  destructive 
power,  by  the  additional  clause,  "  Even  as  I  have  received  of  My 
Father."  That  is  not  merely  a  formula  of  citation,  referring  to  the 
second  Pfllm;  but  it  is  a  prelude  of  the  promise  in  the  final  Epistle, 
ch.  iii.  21.  The  as  has  the  same  profound  meaning  which  it  had 
when  the  Lord  in  His  humiliation  first  used  it,  Luke  xxii.  29. 

But  what  is  the  morning  star  ?  Pious  readers  of  a  certain 
kind  pass  over  this  with  devout  feeling,  as  something  undefined, 
and  form  no  clear  impression  of  it  in  their  minds ;  but  the 
expositor  must  look  at  it  more  carefully,  according  to  his  best 
ability.  It  is  despatching  it  too  easily  to  compare  ch.  xxii.  16, 
and  say  that  this  concluding  word  only  sums  up  the  whole 
promise  from  ver.  26  onwards:  "I  will  thus  give  Alyself  to 
him  as  the  true  Ruler  and  King."  For,  Christ  is  not  called,  as 
a  Ruler,  the  bright  morning  star ;  and,  moreover,  the  phraseology 
would  be  strange  and  unexampled :  "  I  will  give  ISIyself  to  him," 
and  as  the  "  morning  star,"  meaning  again  only  "  My  power, 
the  true  Christocracy."  We  think  that  the  "  morning  star  "  to 
he  given  is  something  different  from  the  Lord  Himself  so  termed, 
although  there  is  naturally  a  connection  between  the  two.  But 
must  we  adduce  2.  Pet.  i.  19,  and  refer  it  only  to  the  rising  of 
light  in  the  heart  ?  ^     This  again  is  saying  too  little ;  it  goes 

^  Zinzendorf  translates,  without  further  ado,  "  I  will  give  him  in  Ids  heart 
the  morning  star." 


REV.  II.  18-29.  163 

back  inappropriately  to  the  beginnings,  whereas  this  concluding 
promise,  like  all  the  rest,  manifestly  stretches  forward  to  a 
mysterious  future.  In  a  general  way,  it  would  be  sufficient  to 
intei*pret :  "  He  that  overcometh  shall  be  present  at  the  first 
entrance  and  dawn  of  My  time  kingdom  over  the  nations,  and 
share  it  Avith  ISIe ! "  But  this  has  not  enough  personal  appro- 
priation of  the  promise  ;  it  is  not  sufficiently  concrete.  I  vnW 
give  him — must  have  the  same  meaning  as  in  the  similar  for- 
mulas, vers.  7,  10,  17.  We  think  that  the  truth  of  this  un- 
doubtedly peculiar  expression  Hes  in  the  middle  between  the 
futm'e  and  the  mere  preparation  for  it,  as  the  morning  star 
points  to  such  an  intermediate  position : — not  yet  the  day  itself, 
but  the  messenger  preceding  and  foreannouncing  it.  Thus, 
the  overcomer,  under  the  bmxlen  and  darkness  of  Thyatira, 
receives  actually  already  in  his  heart  the  prospect  and  com- 
mencing pledge  of  the  light  which  will  rise :  this  is  included, 
but  it  is  not  all  the  meaning.  He  has  not  merely  "  the  liA-ing 
hope  and  assurance  of  final  victory "  (as  v.  Gerlach  says)  ;  but 
is  really  a  participator  and  receiver  of  a  beginning  of  the  king- 
dom, of  that  victory  of  the  true  Shepherd  and  King  over  the 
nations,  which  was  future  to  Thyatira,  and  would  come  in  the 
end.  And  what  is  that  itself  ?  Assm'edly  the  millennial  king- 
dom, to  which,  in  a  certain  sense,  all  these  promises  point ;  but 
before  that  full  ftJfilment,  it  is  also  a  specific  prelude  of  it, 
which  is  parallel  with  the  previously  threatened  judgment  upon 
Sardis,  as  the  other  side  of  that  coming  of  the  Lord.  Thus,  to 
speak  plainly  out,  the  so-called  Reformation  of  the  Church  is 
signified  by  the  promised  morning  star,  so  far  as  regards  the 
first  fiJfilment ;  but  this  assm'edly  only  as  the  type  and  earnest 
of  another  much  more  glorious  \actory  of  light.  If,  as  we  shall 
be  constrained  (though  to  the  offence  of  some)  to  admit,  Sardis 
is  the  church  succeeding  the  commencement  of  the  Eeformation, 
which  brought  in  no  "  Philadelphia  "  (that  is,  brotherly  love), 
but  fell  again  almost  into  death  with  its  cold  orthodoxy,  bearing 
the  name  of  new  Hfe  and  purified  doctrine ;  and  if,  therefore, 
the  work  of  the  Reformation  itself,  which  formed  so  wonderful 
an  epoch,  would  otherwise  be  altogether  unmentioned,  which 
we  cannot  imagine ; — it  wdll  appear  strikingly  harmonious  that 
we  should  read  here,  by  way  of  close  and  transition  at  least,  of 
a  morning  star  of  new  light  and  life  rising  upon  the  faithful  of 


164  THE  EPISTLE  TO  SAEDIS. 

Thyatira,  as  a  victory  of  the  sceptre  of  Clnist  over  the  power  of 
the  ruling  harlot.  So  far  we  agree  generally  with  v.  Meyer, 
whose  altogether  different  interpretation  of  Sardis  we  cannot 
accept :  "  The  true  evangelical  illumination  which  broke  out 
everywhere  about  the  time  of  the  Reformation,  the  first  new 
enlightenment  was  the  reward  of  the  heroes  of  faith  in  Thyatira, 
who  after  the  midnight  of  superstition  received  the  light  of 
Christ,  and  exercised  with  Him  the  office  of  the  morning  star 
which  heralds  the  day."  Did  not  Luther  himself  go  forth  from 
Thyatira  as  one  who  broke  through  and  overcame  under  the 
pressure  of  her  power  and  might  t  Sander  expresses  this  even 
more  strongly  than  we  should  be  inclmed  to  do  : — "  Among 
these  overcomers,  to  whom  the  iron  sceptre  and  the  morning 
star  were  given,  the  Reformers  in  common  are  not  to  be  mis- 
taken." ^  Cei'tainly  it  is  here  first,  at  the  close  and  not  already 
in  the  midst  of  the  period  of  Thyatira,  that  we  find  the  true 
"  Elijahs."  The  reader  must  now  adjust  for  himself  the  things 
which  we  have  given  as  no  more  than  forecastings,  in  a  domain 
where  strict  exposition  must  needs  be  at  fault.  If  he  cannot 
agree  with  us,  let  him  find  something  better,  which  will  fairly 
and  fully  correspond  with  the  well-weighed  letter  and  the  con- 
nection of  the  prophetical  word. 

And  unto  the  angel  of  the  church  in  Sardis  write  : 
These  things  saith  He  that  hath  the  Seven  Spirits  of 
God,  and  the  seven  stars  ;  I  know  thy  works,  that 

thou  hast  a  name  that  thou  LIVEST,  and  art  DEADw 
The  Epistle  on  which  we  now  enter  presents  a  great  difficulty, 
both  for  exposition  and  application.  With  reverent  awe  of  the 
Spirit's  word  in  the  lips  of  Jesus,  which  so  wonderfully  yields 
its  own  self-demonstration,  we  proceed  to  give  the  best  inter- 
pretation we  can :  it  will  be  our  object  to  avoid  as  much  as 
possible  all  imposition  of  our  own  meaning,  while  skrinking  not 
from  the  expression  of  what  seems  to  us  the  truth.  We  have 
hitherto  found  a  chronological  progression  of  predominant  refer- 
ence to  successive  periods  in  the  history  of  the  Church — suc- 
cessive, though  in  a  sense  running  into  each  other:  this  we 
must  still  hold  fast,  unless  the  sense  of  the  words  absolutely 
disallow  it.     We  have  also  found,  with  tolerable  certainty,  a 

'  He  afterwards  incorrectly  intcrj)rets  the  morning  star  to  be  tlie  Word 
of  God — which  would,  accordiiig  to  his  view,  better  suit  the  sceptre. 


REV.  III.  1-6.  165 

proplictical  significance  even  in  the  names  of  these  churches ; 
and  this  Avill  be  still  more  plainly  seen  in  the  last  two.  Is 
Sardis  to  be  the  sole  exception  ?  It  is  indeed  the  name  most 
etpnologically  obscure  of  all,  inasmuch  as  the  Greek  language 
affords  no  derivation.  The  Oriental  tongues  have  (since 
Vitringa)  been  resorted  to  for  help ;  and  the  first  meaning  given 
is  "  the  rest "  ^ — which  will,  as  we  shall  see,  suit  well  enough. 
But  later  learning  has  traced  the  name  of  the  ancient  metro- 
pohs  of  Lydia  (once  the  rich  residence  of  Crcesus,  now  existing 
only  in  a  miserable  village)  to  a  Lydian  root ;  and,  moreover, 
refer  to  it  the  mysterious  Sepharad  in  Obadiah  (ver.  20),  as 
meaning  the  same  Sardis,  properly  "  Sevarda  "  or  "  Separda.'* 
With  this  last  we  do  not  agree,  thinking  "  Sparta  "  rather  pro^ 
bable  in  Obadiah  ;  ^  but  the  Sanscrit  derivation  of  the  Lydian 
name  will  stand — it  being  equivalent  to  "  new,  new^-born  with 
the  year,  renewed."  Thus  much  appears  to  us  clear  at  the  out- 
set :  Thyatira  passes  over  into  Sardis,  and  that  which  in  the 
former  was  "the  rest,^'  becomes  in  the  latter  a  "new'^  form 
and  constitution,  under  another  name  and  character.  Not  as  if 
"the  rest"  of  Ver.  2  stood  in  connection  with  these  (for  there 
the  meaning  is  quite  different) ;  but  the  residue  of  Thyatira, 
rewarded  with  the  morning  star  of  a  new  light  and  life,  form 
the  transition  to  the  neic,  whose  subsequent  and  speedy  declen-^ 
sion  is  condemned  in  Sardis.  Accordingly,  w^e  should  find  a 
consistent  meaning  for  both  interpretations  of  the  name  at  once ; 
but,  declining  this  double  meaning,  we  accept  the  definition  of 
a  new  form  of  the  Church,  as  being  etymologically  the  more 
sure,  and  better  corresponding  with  facts. 

Ebrard  thinks  it  may  be  observed,  that  after  this  fifth 
Epistle  there  is  no  longer  any  historical  progression  in  the  pro- 
phetical interpretation ;  but  that  Sardis,  Philadelphia,  Laodicea, 
are  to  be  sought  collectively  in  connection  with  the  abiding 
Thyatira.  This  much  only  is  true,  that  generally  the  several 
characteristics  of  the  churches  are  not  rigidly  defined  in  strict 
succession  only ;  but  that  those  wdiich  follow  are  prepared  for 
in  those  which  precede,  while  those  which  precede  continue  on 
in  those  which  follow.     So  also  v.  ^leyer,  with  the  same  funda- 

>  -r^ys  frequently  in  the  Old  Testament :  those  who  have  escaped  m  battle, 
the  residue  after  fight,  like  -^''^3. 
^  See  Delitzsch  in  Rudelbach's  Zeitschrift,  1851,  i.  S.  100. 


166  THE  EPISTLE  TO  SAEDIS. 

mental  "view,  strangely  calls  Sardis  and  Philadelphia  the  two 
daughters,  and  Laodicea  the  grand-daughter,  of  Thyatira ;  but 
we  regard  all  this  as  disturbing  the  clearness  and  simplicity  of 
the  prophecy.  Is  Sardis,  then,  according  to  this  notion,  "  the 
Catholic,  especially  the  Romish,  Church  after  the  time  of  the 
Kef ormation  % "  In  that  case  we  cannot  see  the  distinction 
from  Thyatira,  since  the  Reformation  did  not  give  a  different 
character  to  the  Church  which  rejected  it ;  nor  can  we  under- 
stand how  the  Reformed  Church  is  to  be  first  introduced  under 
the  name  of  Philadelphia.  All  things  concur  to  lead  us  to  the 
conclusion,  that  Sardis,  with  her  new  name,  to  which,  neverthe- 
less, the  reality  does  not  coi'respond,  with  her  declension  from  a 
first  receiving  and  hearing  (ver.  3),  must  mean  pre-eminently 
the  Church  which  arose  from  the  work  of  the  Reformation. 
Some  commentators  (following  a  very  doubtful  deriA^ation  of 
the  name  Sardis)  understand  the  various  residues  of  the  old 
churches,  the  Greek,  Ai'menian,  Coptic,  Maronite,  Abyssinian, 
etc.,  which  all  were  dead;  while  they  hold  that  the  interpreta- 
tion, or  the  restriction,  which  refers  the  whole  to  the  "  evan- 
gelical Church,"  to  be  incorrect  and  unhistorical.  But  we  think 
that,  without  excluding  these  side-glances,  the  succession  of  the 
Seven  Epistles  adheres  to  the  main  line  of  history ;  and  to  us  it 
seems  highly  artificial  to  refer  the  plural  form  "  Sardes "  to 
manifold  residues,  instead  of  giving  to  this,  as  to  every  other 
clim'ch,  its  distinctive  character.  The  historical  interpretation 
must,  of  course,  be  in  harmony  with  real  histoiy ;  but  then  we 
reasonably  ask.  Where  is  the  "  evangelical "  Church  not  long 
after  the  Reformation  ?  Alas,  that  we  could  find  it  and  see  it ! 
Was  the  old  Catholic  Church  actually  at  that  time,  otherwise 
than  before,  dead  and  dried  to  "  a  mummy?  "  Does  not  im- 
partial history  bear  witness,  alas,  that  that  actually  befell  the 
Church  which  the  Reformers  raised  up,  which  was  called  a 
new  and  living  church,  but  was  not  in  reality  such  1  In  one 
of  the  seven  we  must  find  iliis  Church,  on  account  of  her  his- 
torical importance :  where,  then,  shall  we  find  her,  if  not  in 
Sardis  after  Thyatira?  We  cannot  see  her  true  iriiage  in 
Philadelphia;  for  we  ask,  Wliere  is  then  the  open  door  for 
the  little  strength?  (ver.  8).  Apart  from  missions  to  the 
heathen — to  which,  however,  that  points — was  not  rather  the 
door  shut  again  in  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  and  the  peace  of 


EEV.  III.  1-G.  167 

Westphalia  ?  Did  not  the  first,  preliminary  hour  of  tempta- 
tion (ver.  10)  miserably  overpower  her,  so  that  she  fell  into 
Rationalism  ?  AVlien  we  read  the  Epistle  to  Sardis,  without 
any  reference  to  its  prophetic  interpretation,  we  see  that  the 
lineaments  of  its  character  lamentably  but  faithfully  suit  that 
church  which  bore  the  name  of  being  new,  of  being  restored  to 
new  life.  It  is  not  external  persecution  that  is  spoken  of,  nor 
internal  heresy.  "  She  glories  in  being  alive,  but  is  dead ;  be- 
cause the  truth,  which  she  once  embraced  with  subjective  heart- 
felt zeal,  is  now  regarded  only  as  an  objective  treasure  for  the 
head ;  because  an  awakened  Christianity  is  wanting  in  her,  she 
makes  only  masses  of  Christians."  These  are  the  pregnant 
words  of  the  thoughtful  Ebrard,  the  application  of  which  he 
shrinks  from  expressing !  We  will  also  let  some  others  speak 
who  have  expounded  this  before  us.  Father  von  Brunn,  "  the 
old  servant  who  waited  for  his  Lord,"  though  not  furnished 
with  much  penetration  or  thorough  knowledge,  could  not  avoid 
coming  to  the  conclusion  that  "  Sardis  is  the  type  of  the  purified 
Western  Church  after  the  Reformation,"  though  he  exaggerates 
the  condemnation  of  her  beginning  and  origin.  Sander  wrote 
thirty  years  ago  :  "  This  chvirch  represents  to  us  a  time  when  a 
dead  orthodoxy  restrained  and  bound  the  fresh  life  of  the  evan- 
gelical churches — when  the  spirit  was  oppressed  by  forms — 
when  Scholasticism  lifted  its  head  again,  and  fettered  the  living 
Word  of  God — when  life  and  doctrine  were  severed,  and  men 
were  satisfied  A\ith  a  dead  knowledge  of  the  truths  of  salva- 
tion ;  the  Church  was  during  this  period,  from  the  end  of  the 
sixteenth  till  the  latter  half  of  the  eighteenth  century,  a  Sardis — 
men  were  proud  of  their  soundness  of  faith,  and  took  refuge  in 
their  good  works,  their  sacraments  and  church-going,  and  felt 
not  the  ban  which  burdened  the  churches,  and  the  judgments 
which  were  at  the  door."  Finally,  even  Brandt,  who  deals  so 
strangely  with  the  Seven  Epistles  generally,  makes  almost  the 
same  observations  in  his  comment  upon  Sardis. 

After  this  anticipating  introduction — necessary  in  order  to 
show  the  transition  from  Thyatira  to  Sardis,  where  otherwise 
there  might  appear  to  be  a  sudden  spring  to  an  unconnected 
new  beginning — we  shall  perhaps  be  able  better  to  understand 
the  details  of  what  is  here  spoken.  That  the  Lord  describes 
Himself  here,  as  in  ch.  ii.  1,  as  holding  all  the  seven  stars, 


168  THE  EPISTLE  TO  SAEDIS. 

corresponds  entirely  with  the  critical  period  of  tliis  new  begin- 
ning of  the  Ohurch.  But,  instead  of  the  seven  candlesticks,  He 
now  mentions  the  light  and  life  itself  which  was  typified  in 
them  and  imparted  to  them  ;  in  order,  as  it  were,  to  say  that 
this  did  not  result  from  the  mere  "  frame  "  of  the  candlesticks. 
Spirit  is  life ;  therefore,  "  He  that  hath  the  Spirit,  that  is,  the 
Living  One  with  Avhom  is  all  spirit  and  life,  and  who  therefore 
hath  no  pleasure  in  those  who  have  the  name  to  live  aind  yet  are 
dead."  It  is  not  so  much  in  Isa.  xi.  2  that  we  find  the  Seven 
Spirits  of  God^  (of  which  St  Jolm  also  in  Rev.  i.  4  and  v.  6 
speaks),  as  in  JZech.  iv.  2,  10,  iii.  '9,  where  they  correspond  to 
the  seven-branched  candlestick  as  the  seven  all-penetrating  eyes 
of  the  Lord.  These  seven  "  living  Spirits  "  are  a  typical  ex- 
pression for  the  reality  of  the  manifold  influences  of  the  One 
Ploly  Spirit.  The  glorified  Lord  of  gloiy  will  not  go  back,  as 
it  were,  to  the  position  of  His  humble  humanity,  and  say,  "  I 
am  He  who  was  anointed  most  fully  with  the  Holy  Spirit ; " — 
but,  when  He  terms  Himself  the  Possessor  of  the  Seven  Spirits 
before  the  throne  of  God,  He  thereby  testifies  His  essential 
Divinity,  just  as  in  ch.  ii.  18  for  Thyath'a.  But  here  Sardis  is 
referred  to  the  variety  of  the  churches  which  in  the  Lord's  pre- 
sence are  regarded  as  a  unity,  because  she,  in  her  presumption, 
misunderstood  that  truth  ;  even  as  to  Ephesus  the  variety  was 
rather  regarded  as  a  wiity.  The  Lutheran  Church  especially, 
the  most  expressly  developed  stem  and  stock  of  the  evangelical, 
needs  to  be  reminded  that  every  candlestick  receives  its  specific 
light  only  from  the  entire  unity  and  fulness  of  the  Divine  gifts 
of  the  Spirit. 

I  know  thy  looi^ks  !  Thus  stands  here  also  at  the  outset  the 
unaltered  formula  of  the  judicial  sentence  (as  again  in  vers.  8 
and  15),  although  the  condemnation  proceeds  that  the  true  and 
perfect  works  are  not  found  among  them  !  "  I  know  how  it  is 
with  thy  works ;  that  is,  thou  hast  the  name  that  thou  livcst, 
and  art  dead!"^  Judgment  could  scarcely  be  uttered  more 
keenly  and  decisively  upon  any  church  than  this.  It  is  literally 
still  more  rejecting  than  the  Hnkcwarm  "  of  Laodicea ;  but  it  is 
not  to  be  understood  in  its  most  literal  severity,  as  we  learn  from 
vers.  2  aiad  4.     That  which  remained  was  not  yet  dead,  and 

^  Although  even  there  the  seven-number  is  not  accidental. 

^  The  first  In  is  not  /o?-,  but  dependent  explanatorily  upon  o73«. 


REV.  III.  1-6.  169 

there  were  some  among  them  undefiled ; — yet  the  Faithful  One 
speaks  thus  keenly  and  zealously,  we  might  say  thus  extremely, 
at  the  beginning,  in  order  to  awaken  by  such  words  of  fear  those 
who  were  almost  dead.     We  are  taught  eveiywhere  by  the  lan- 
guage of  these  Epistles  to  interpret  their  expressions  according 
to  their  relative  power  and  significance,  without  miduly  pressing 
the  letter.    As  people  are  found,  and  the  words  suit  them,  they 
are  addressed :  thus  did  the  Lord  address  them  when  upon 
earth,  and  thus  He  stiU  addresses  them  from  heaven.     Sardis 
has  the  name — or  a  name,  which  is  equivalent^ — that  she  lives ; 
but  the  Lord  tells  her  that  she  is  dead :  this  langvxage  has  almost 
as  condemnatory  a  tone  as  ch.  ii.  9  concerning  the  Jews  who 
were  not  Jews ;  and  may,  according  to  the  analogy  of  Rom. 
ii.  17,  etc.,  be  interpreted  of  the  so-called  Church  of  the  simple 
word  and  pure  doctrine.     False  doctrine  is  not  objected  to  her ; 
the  name  has  consequently  a  half-true  gromid :  all  the  worse  is 
it,  that  that  name  should  be  made  the  occasion  of  vain-glorying 
in  opposition  to  the  truth  of  life.     The  parallel  which  has  been 
sought  in  St  Paul's  words,  1  Tim.  v.  6,^  concerning  an  indi- 
vidual person,  is  something  different ;  for  here,  amid  predomi- 
nant death,  the  coUecitce  wJiole  approaching  a  condition  of  death, 
there  is  yet  remaining  a  germ  of  life  which  may  be  awakened. 
But  it  is  with  sufficient  earnestness  declared  to  us  "Protestants," 
glorjang  as  such  in  opposition  to  the  Romish  Church,  that  life 
and  a  living  Christendom  is  no  mere  name,  not  an^'thing  that 
may  be  borne  in  the  mouth,  and  assuredly  not  matter  of  vain 
self-glorvdng.     But,  on  the  other  hand,  the  exhortation  based 
upon  the  name  which  we  bear,  has  ever  been,  and  will  always 
be,  a  very  piercing  and  convincing  exhortation.     The  beautiful 
name  of  life,  which  is  here  held  up  in  condemnation,  is  indeed 
not  the  ambiguous  appellation  "  Protestant,"   in  use  against 
Rationalism  as  well  as  Fanaticism  in  its  two  extremes ;  but 
the  name,  presupposed  with  a  secret  hint  which  the  course  of 
histor)'  will  solve,  of  the  new  and  renewed,  the  pure  and  the 
purified,  Churoh,  the  Church  of  the  pure  word  and  uncorrupt 
faith. 

Oh  that  it  had  been  in  all  from  the  beginning  the  uncorrupt 

1  The  article  "before  Svo/y.u  is  not  in  the  correct  text. 

2  Zomcc  ridvnx.s  is  dead  in  connection  -with  a  living  body,  and  more 
rigorously  exclusive  than  the  only  seemingly  equivalent  viKpo^^  dead. 


170  THE  EPISTLE  TO  SARDIS. 

faith,  or  that  it  had  remained  so!  It  is  deeply  humbhiig  for 
the  history  of  our  Church  and  Reformation,  that  the  Lord  does 
not  say  for  Sardis  one  word  about  the  great  conflict,  which  yet 
jirst  was  carried  on  sincerely  and  not  without  victory  in  His 
might :  He  says  not  here,  as  elsewhere,  anything  about  love  and 
patience ;  yea.  He  does  not  expressly  mention  (nor  did  He,  in- 
deed, to  Ephesus)  faith,  the  gi*eat  critical  word  of  the  Reforma- 
tion, in  the  urging  of  which  the  Reformation  was  sound.  And 
wherefore  ?  Because  He  has  not  in  view,  and  does  not  address 
His  Epistle  to,  that  first  outset  of  a  revivification  of  Christendom, 
which,  while  it  was  not  unworthy  of  praise,  did  not  need  to  be 
praised  ;  but  the  churxh  which  sprang  from  it,  and  which  both 
deserved  and  needed  blame.  We  hear,  however,  in  the  follow- 
ing condescending  words,  that  He  does  not  reject  or  cast  away 
this  church,  any  more  than  any  of  the  others  ;  but  that  He  so 
severely  addresses  her  on  account  of  her  high  vocation  and  name. 
Be  watchful,  and   strengthen   the  things  which 

REMAIN,  that  ARE  READY  TO  DIE  :    FOR   I   HAVE   NOT  FOUND 
THY  WORKS  PERFECT  BEFORE  GOD. 

Not  simply.  Awake,  thou  that  sleepest,  and  rise  up  from 
death  !  nor,  as  Luther's  translation  might  be  misunderstood, 
Be  from  this  time  more  watchful  than  hitherto !  but.  Become 
watchful !  Become  what  befits  thy  name,  a  watcher,  a  truly 
awakened  chirrch,  lifting  up  aloud  the  awakening  voice  of  the 
word  of  God !  The  morning  star  hath  called  thee  into  life — 
arise,  then,  and  become  light !  Thou  wast,  and  woiildst  be,  a 
watchman  who  should  herald  My  dawn — alas,  thou  thyself  art 
not  enough  awake !  This  word  of  the  Lord  to  Sardis  is  the 
voice  of  the  true  "  watchman  of  Zion ; "  and  it  gives  us  the 
legitimate  superscription  of  that  chapter  in  the  history  of  His 
Church  which  we  call  the  Reformation-history :  there  was  to 
the  waiting  Christians  of  Thyatira  a  breaking  morning,  though 
the  day  as  yet  was  wanting.  It  was  a  wakening,  but  not  to 
full  wakefulness ;  sleep  soon  followed  again.  What  is  it  that 
the  evangelical  Church  lacks  for  the  consummation  of  her  good 
beginning?  Awakening  and  watchfulness,  the  internal  spiritual 
life  of  her  people,  who  have  received  and  admitted  the  piu'e 
doctrine !  Wlio  is  there  that  will  or  that  can  deny  this  ?  Who 
dares  challenge  with  incorrectness  this  application  to  our  Sardis? 
To  Peter,  who  denied  Him,  the  Lord  once  said  upon  earth, 


REV.  III.  1-G.  171 

"  "\Mien  thou  art  converted,  strengthen  tlij  brethren  ! "  To  the 
Chui'ch,  which  confesses  Him,  He  now  speaks  from  heaven  the 
same  word :  "  When  thou,  by  repentance,  hast  risen  from  thv 
weakness,  yea  rather  art  become  truly  aUve,  watchful,  and 
strong,  then  strengthen  the  remainder,  which  mth  thy  confession 
has  scarcely  received  life,  and  in  thy  continued  confession  has 
dra^^'n  near  to  utter  death  ! "  We  see  and  learn  that  the  mere 
confession  even  of  His  name  is  not  enough ;  it  is  not  piu'e 
doctrine  that  avails,  but  the  living  life.  The  remainder  : — this 
word  may  indeed  allude  to  ch.  ii.  24;  but  by  way  of  contrast  — 
we  might  almost  say  ironical  contrast.  In  Thyatira  there  was  a 
little  residue  of  faithfiJ  ones,  out  of  whom  the  new  confessors 
arose;  here,  on  the  contrary,  there  is  an  inert,  dead  mass  and 
majority,  which  is  called,  in  opposition  to  the  addressed  and 
awakened  kernel  of  the  Church,  and  for  its  rulers  and  guides, 
the  Eest — and  in  the  neuter,  just  as  a  mass,  which  is  without 
personal  life  in  the  individuals.  "  Which  would  die'"'  (so  in  the 
original)  :  that  is,  was  in  the  act  of  dying,  over  which  death 
impended,  and  which  will  altogether  die  unless  thou  watchest 
and  strengthenest  it !  Here  we  are  told,  on  decisive  authority, 
what  was  the  need,  and  what  the  neglect,  from  the  beginning 
of  the  work  of  Reformation  ;  what  the  only  means  of  invigora- 
tion  and  life  for  the  dead  communities  over  which  we  mourn. 
It  is  the  special  cure  of  souls,  whicli  our  fanatical  young 
Lutheranism  declares  to  be  needless  !  ^  Not  the  people  into  the 
Church,  but  the  Church  into  the  people !  Home  Missions, 
rightly  understood,  and  rightly  conducted !  ^  Move  correctly, 
and  more  conformably  to  Scripture  and  fact— The  right  con- 
stitution of  our  churches,  the  pastoral  and  diaconate  ministries 
in,  and  in  connection  with,  the  office  of  the  word  !  Exhortation, 
edification,  and  comfort  of  souls ;  governing  them  not  by  eccle- 
siastical police,  but  by  true  spiritual  discipline  !  These  are  the 
things  which  are  wanting,  and  they  alone  will  repair  the  mis- 
chief which  the  Lord  here  rebukes,  not  without  a  glance  back 
to  the  reproof  in  Ezekiel :  "  The  diseased  have  ye  not  strength- 

^  One  Potel  in  Gnadau  says :  "  A  particular  cure  of  souls  does  not  exist, 
other  than  the  true  administration  of  the  ofl&ce  of  the  keys ! ! " — Evang. 
Kirchaizeitung  1857,  Nr.  85. 

^  "  Which  are  taking  the  place  of  the  Lutheran  ruling  offices ! " — laments 
the  same  Potel. 


172  THE  EPISTLE  TO  SARDIS. 

ened.)  neither  have  ye  healed  that  which  was  sick,  neither  have 
ye  bound  up  that  which  was  broken,  neither  have  ye  brought 
again  that  which  was  driven  away,  neither  have  ye  sought  that 
which  was  lost ;  but  with  force  and  with  cruelty  have  ye  ruled 
them  "  (Ezek.  xxxiv.  4,  where  in  ver.  16  the  promise  follows — 
I  Myself  will  do  it !). 

Luther,  when  urged  to  establish  ecclesiastical  discipline  and 
the  pastoral  cure  of  souls,  said,  I  have  not  the  men  fit  for  it ;  and 
this  littleness  of  faith  in  the  strong  behever  has  wrought  very  great 
mischief.  Primarily  of  this  fundamental  deficiency  in  our  eccle- 
siastical constitution  as  Lutherans,  and  at  the  same,  time  of  others 
in  the  Reformed,  the  Lord's  judgment  speaks — I  have  not  found 
thy  loorks  perfect  !  The  works  are  rightly  objected  to  the  church 
of  faith  ;  for  it  is  through  no  other  than  a  want  of  faith  that  the 
works,  weighed  in  the  balance  of  the  sanctuary,  are  found  too 
light  and  not  complete.  What  was  the  ecclesiastical  constitution 
established  by  the  Reformation  but  a  foundation,  and  an  imper- 
fect one,  a  work  not  thoroughly  earned  out !  It  is  not  that,  ac- 
cording to  the  foolish  notions  now  prevalent,  we  are  wanting  in 
a  Romanist  ecclesiastical  authority,  and  in  an  enforced  hypo- 
critical miity,  in  the  official  prerogatives  of  a  vain-glorious  church- 
system  ;  what  we  have  lacked  from  the  beginning,  is  the  pro- 
secution to  its  full  issue  of  preaching,  for  the  conversion  and 
religious  life  of  a  Christian  people.  The  nearness  to  death  of 
this  most  abundant  residue  should  teach  ms,  who  by  the  Lord 
are  held  responsible,  to  mark  our  own  supineness  and  neglect, 
in  order  that  we  may  arouse  ourselves  in  alarm,  instead  of  in- 
dulging in  vain-gloryings.  And  how  can  we  make  the  works 
perfect,  how  can  this  I'esidue  be  strengthened,  but  by  ovirselves 
being  invigorated  in  the  might  of  the  Lord  ?  He  who  utters 
with  /His  decisive  judgment — "  I  have  not  found  perfect" — 
condescendingly  adds  for  confirmation,  as  if  we  woidd  not  re- 
ceive it  from  Himself,  before  My  God  I  As  all  things  are  before 
God,  they  are  in  their  reality  before  Him.  In  ch.  ii.  4  it  was 
said,  "  In  the  paradise  of  My  God  (ver.  28,  of  My  Father, 
and  so  in  ch.  iii.  5;  compare,  further,  ver.  12  with  ver.  21). 
It  is  remarkable  that  in  the  Revelation  of  St  John  the  Lord 
speaks  several  times  of  His  God  (as  St  Paul  often  speaks  of  the 
God  and  Father  of  Christ),  pointing  back  to  the  first  words  of 
the  risen  Jesus  in  John  xx.  17  ;  for  now,  testifying  from  heaven, 


KEY.  III.  1-6.  173 

He  Avill  avow  EQmself  to  be  properly  and  perfectly  in  all  things 
the  glorified  God-man. 

Remember  therefore  how  thou  hast  received  and 
HEARD,  AND  HOLD  FAST  AND  REPENT  !  We  now  hear,  what 
our  exposition  has  taken  for  granted,  as  it  is  here  confirmed,  that 
the  church  of  Sardis  took  its  rise  from  a  new  beginning,  from 
the  laying  of  a  new  foundation  of  receiving  and  hearing — a  re- 
ceiving of  grace^  a  hearing  of  the  word.  Thus  the  work  of  the 
Reformation  itself,  and  in  itself,  so  far  as  it  restored  through 
God's  grace  the  preaching  of  the  ti*ue  Word  of  God,  is  not  re- 
buked in  the  Epistle  to  Sardis,^  but  is  rather  most  plainly  recog- 
nised. It  is  not  blamed  as  a  breach  with  the  old  and  false 
church ;  it  is  not  condemned  as  a  self-originating  work  which 
elevated  subjective  reason  against  tradition  and  authority,  or 
anything  of  that  kind.  The  perfect  right  is  thus  conceded: 
Sardis  received  and  heard  from  the  Lord  that  upon  which  she 
was  built.  The  Lord  addi'esses  her  as  St  Paul  addresses  Timo- 
thy :  "  Hold  fast  the  form  of  sound  words,  which  thou  hast 
heard  of  me  ;  keep  this  good  deposit !"  (2  Tim.  i.  13,  14).  As 
Ephesus'  was  to  remember  the  life  of  her  first  love,  so  Sardis  was 
to  remember  the  preaching  which  she  had  first  received.  She 
has  not  fallen  from  the  truth  of  her  doctrine,  she  has  still  what 
she  must  keep  and  maintain,  even  while  her  repentance  is  urged. 
But  she  has  forgotten  hoio  she  received  and  heard  it  at  the  be- 
gmning :  this  how,  which  must  not  be  overlooked,  but  must  be 
imderstood  as  equivalent  to  xohaty  gives  the  proper  key  for  the 
whole.  She  had  once  received  it,  taken  it  to  herself  in  the  right 
way,  "  with  holy  heartfelt  zeal,  but  now  only  with  the  head;  once 
she  had  heard  it  in  the  inner  man,  now  only  with  the  outward 
ear."^  Indeed,  this  first  good  beginning  of  the  right  hoic  does 
not  extend  very  far,  certainly  not  to  the  "  final  close  of  the 
confession"  in  the  Formula  Concordice,  or  afterwards  in  that 
of  Dort.  We  need  only  take  the  trouble  to  read  through 
Planck's  "  Origin  of  Protestant  Doctrine,"  and  we  shall  find 

1  "  The  thing  itself  is  not  rejected.  That  which  is  God's  work  must 
endivre.  But  there  are  people  who  take  the  form  only.  This  is  the  age  of 
Sardis,  and  we  may  well  observe  whither  it  tends."  (Berlen.  Bib.) 
'  2  "Which  we  once  more  gladly  quote  from  Ebrard.  Certainly  the  Jiow  of 
receiving  is  meant,  and  not  of  God's  giving :  hence  the  Berleub.  Bible  is 
wrong  :  "  How  mercifully,  richly,  mildly,  seasonably,"  etc. 


174  THE  EPISTLE  TO  SAUDIS. 

(after  all  abatements  for  his  perversions,  which  are  not  slight) 
so  much  of  the  mideniably  human  and  false  in  the  "hoAv"  of 
the  reduction  of  the  Word  of  God  to  ecclesiastical  doctrine,  that 
we  shall  be  constrained  to  remember  and  repent  of  this  "  how" 
itself.  It  is  not  concerning  that  fresh,  pure  beginning  of  the 
testimony  to  which  the  Lord  refers  us,  but  concerning  the  pro- 
gress of  it,  that  the  following  too  strong  expressions  of  von  Brunn 
hold  good  :  "  We  shall  not  w^onder  at  the  severe  declaration  of  the 
Lord,  if  we  bear  in  mind  that  the  sum  of  all  doctrine  is  not  a  scien- 
tific estimate  of  dogma,  but  love  out  of  a  pm'e  heart  and  a  good 
conscience,  and  faith  unfeigned ;  and  if  we  remember,  further, 
that  in  the  time  of  the  Reformation  this  latter  was  not  the  cha- 
racteristic either  of  the  teachers  or  the  people,  but  that  they  were 
actuated  by  a  general  disgust  at  the  secularity  of  the  Pope  and  the 
assumptions  of  the  priesthood,  combined  with  a  deepening  insight 
into  the  oppressive  corruptions  which  had  insinuated  themselves 
into  the  Church.  For  we  cannot  perceive  in  that  time  much  (?) 
of  that  spiritual  life  which  the  Lord  requires  of  His  disciples. 
Wliere  there  was  any  real  amendment  of  the  Church,  it  was  the 
work  less  of  effective  sermons  than  of  learned  disputations,  which 
proved  by  conclusions,  based  upon  Scripture,  that  the  charges 
urged  against  the  Papacy  found  their  warrant  in  the  Word  of 
God."  From  this,  much  of  its  exaggeration  must  be  deducted ; 
but  the  truth  remains,  that  the  work  begun  in  the  Spirit  ^vas 
not  in  the  Spirit  entirely,  or  even  to  a  great  extent,  carried  out.^ 
Alas  !  how  soon  did  the  Church  of  the  Reformation  require  as  a 
whole  that  other  exhortation,  "  O  Timothy,  keep  that  which  is 
committed  to  thy  trust,  avoiding  profane  and  vain  babblings, 
and  oppositions  of  science  falsely  so  called,  which  some  professing, 
have  erred  concerning  the  faith!"  (1  Tim.  vi.  20,  21).  Repent  of 
thy  human  perversion  of  the  treasure  of  grace  entrusted  to  thee ! 
Be  watchful,  that  thou  mayest  mark  it,  and  put  it  away! 

If,  therefore,  thou  shalt  not  watch,  I  will  come 

(upon  thee)  ASA  thief,  AND  THOU  SHALT  NOT  KNOW  WHAT 

HOUR  I  -WILL  COME  UPON  THEE.^  We  hear  in  these  words 
the  echo  of  those  sayings  of  our  Lord  concerning  watching  and 

^  The  same  writer  adds  afterwards :  "  Tims  we  cannot  be  astonished  that 
in  most  of  the  rehgious  wars  of  that  time,  Divine  help  was  withdrawn  from 
the  Protestants." 

2  The  first  "  upon  thee"  is  probably,  though  not  certainly,  spurious. 


IIEV.  III.  1-G.  175 

the  coming  of  the  thief,  Matt.  xxiv.  42-51 ;  to  which  the  Apostles 
also  refer,  1  Tliess.  v.  2,  and  2  Pet.  iii.  10 :  see  once  more 
Rev.  xvi.  15.  In  this  expression  the  advancing  glance  draws 
nearer  to  the  final  day  of  judgment.  The  thief  does  not  say  be- 
forehand that  he  will  come;  but  the  Lord,  in  His  merciful  fidelitv, 
tells  us  so  abundantly.  And  when  He  so  comes  at  the  end. 
He  will,  in  righteous  retribution,  entirely  take  away  all  that  had 
been  received  from  Him,  but  not  preserved  and  diligently  used. 
If  He  comes  to  a  church,  it  will  be,  Avhat  fundamentallv  sio-ni- 
fies  the  same  thing,  to  remove  its  candlestick  from  its  place ; 
their  old  church-treasm-e,  which  they  have  hid  in  the  napkin  of 
idleness,  or  dissipated  in  proud  contention,  will  be  taken  away 
from  those  who  hitherto  possessed  it.  When  the  final  removing 
judgment  will  come  upon  Sardis,  after  its  judgment  through 
Rationalism,  we  know  not:  it  may  be  much  nearer  than  we  think ; 
and  possibly  hastened  by  our  present  unrighteous  and  impm-e 
zeal  for  the  re-establishment  of  old  things  in  that  church  whose 
good  name  speaks  of  that  which  is  livingly  new.  But  when 
Sardis  falls,  the  time  will  follow,  as  we  perceive  already  in  the 
preparatory  beginning,  of  Philadelphia  and  Laodicea  together. 
As  in  the  faithful  of  Thyatira  the  reformation  was  before  pre- 
pared for,  so  the  pure  and  living  in  Sardis  form  the  secret  root  of 
the  Philadelphian  church.  To  these  the  gracious  words  of  tlie 
Lord  now  tm-n,  that  right  may  be  fittingly  done  to  the  other  side. 
But  thou  hast  a  few  names  in  Sardis  which  have 
not  defiled  their  garments  ;  and  they  shall  walk  with 
^Ie  in  avhite,  for  THEY  ARE  WORTHY.  Only  in  the  Epistles 
to  Thyatu'a  and  Sardis  are  the  names  mentioned  twice ;  and  in 
each  case  when  the  faithful  are  referred  to.  The  hut  coming 
first  (wanting  in  the  translation)  has  a  tone  of  grace  after  the 
threatening.  Here  it  is  said,  Tliou  hast; — and  the  presence  of 
these  worthy  ones  in  the  church,  now  first  late  mentioned,  is 
represented  to  the  angel  of  the  church  as  a  treasm-e  in  his  pos- 
session which  had  been  hitherto  as  it  were  unknown,  or  at  least 
not  rightly  estimated,  and  by  the  use  of  which  he  might  come 
to  true  repentance.^  They  are  feio,  but  in  them  thou  hast  many : 
if  thou  only  knewest  how  to  value  them,  as  I  count  them  ivorthy! 

^  The  Rest  in  Thyatira,  and  the  Remainder  in  Sardis,  form  a  contrast. 
Similarly,  to  Pergamos — Thou  hast  heretics;  but  here  only — Thou  hast 
faithful. 


1X6  THE  EPISTLE  TO  SAUDIS. 

Names  are  spoken  of  :  not  as  belonging  to  celebrated  personages, 
the  mention  of  whom  would  be  enough  to  mark  them  out ;  nor 
as  meaning  that  "  among  thy  names,  for  thou  liast  many  distin- 
guished men  of  namd,  yet  only  a  few  which  have  any  value 
before  Me !"  For,  assuredly,  those  who  are  meant  here  are 
among  the  less  known,  manifest  only  to  the  Lord,  and  whom  we 
must  seek  among  those  who  have  been  called  the  "  silent  in  the 
land."  Names  are  equivalent  to  persons,  in  ch.  xi.  13,  as  in  Acts 
i.  15.  Nevertheless,  there  is  something  in  the  background,  when 
the  expression  is  used  as  here.  Before,  the  dead  mass,  which  to- 
gether had  the  "  name"  that  it  lived,  was  called  the  Remainder, 
in  the  neuter:  in  opposition  to  that,  we  have  now  the  names  or  the 
persons  knowTi  to  the  Lord,  and  mentioned  with  honour  before 
His  God ;  for  personal  sanctification  in  the  personal  life,  saved 
personalities,  worthy  of  eternal  salvation,  are  what  is  essential ! 
This  is  here  asserted  against  those  who,  like  their  modern  repre- 
sentatives, decried  in  a  wTong  spirit  the  "  subjective"  out  of 
deference  to  an  ecclesiastical  "objectivity" — as  if  the  blessed 
God  could  take  any  pleasure  in  a  glorious  liturgy  offered  by 
dead  souls ! 

The  pure  and  undefiled  service  of  God,  is  to  keep'  ourselves 
unspotted  from  the  world  (James  i.  27).  Sinners  defile  their 
garments,  their  inner  man,  by  the  lusts  of  the  flesh,  as  the  un- 
clean body  spots  a  garment  (Jude  23).  This  is  a  profound 
symbol  of  an  essential  trath ;  as,  according  to  the  same  funda- 
mental idea,  Isa.  Isiv.  6  terms  all  our  own  natural  righteous- 
ness a  filthy  (Heb.  stained  with  the  specific  defilement  of 
impure  flesh)  garment.  To  the  church  of  Sardis  there  is  now 
promised,  and  magnified,  the  wedding-garment,  which  not  only 
covers,  but  in  a  wonderful  maimer  takes  away,  om*  shame — 
the  righteousness  of  Christ  through  faith.  Concerning  this 
garment,  too,  it  is  further  said,  that  only  a  few  of  those  who 
have  actually  once  put  it  on,  have  pi'eserved  it  unspotted ;  or, 
without  figiu'e,  that  only  on  and  in  few  has  justification  exerted 
its  full  power  unto  that  sanctification  which  is  valid  before  God, 
and  which  He  looks  for  as  the  fruit  of  that  tree.  Only  those 
who  are  sanctified  receive  the  inheritance  (Acts  xxvi.  18) — 
only  those  who  are  pure  in  heart  behold  the  face  of  the  Pure. 
Heb.  xii.  14  ;  Matt.  v.  8.  Their  reward  is— as  the  Lord  wlio 
walketh  amid  the  candlesticks,  ch.  ii.  1,  promises — They  shall 


REV.  III.  1-6.  177 

walk  with  Me,  that  is,  stand  before  Me  in  confirmed  life,  and 
shall  he  luith  Me  in  the  region  of  eternal  life  (cli.  xxii.  3,  4), 
where  \Yill  not  be  a  stationary  stillness,  but  rather  the  abund- 
ance of  holy  activity.  And  in  white,  resplendent  vestures  of 
glorified  bodies,  which  will  then  be  given  to  the  righteous  as 
the  bi'ight  manifestation  of  their  inward  purity  and  righteous- 
ness ;  as  in  ver.  5  the  great  promise  is  resumed,  and  as  in  ch. 
xix.  8,  14,  this  book,  throughout  so  wonderfully  woven  into  the 
unity  of  a  great  plan,  repeats  and  explains  the  promise.  Not 
that  "  walkino;  with  Me  in  white  garments"  means  "  ofoina: 
clothed  in  white  like  Myself" — for  in  the  title,  ver.  1,  the  Lord's 
bright  garments  were  not  made  prominent ;  yet  there  is  a  simi- 
larity (not  equality)  between  His  vesture  and  that  of  His  people, 
as  Phil.  iii.  21  declares.  His  righteousness  in  the  beginning,  His 
holiness  in  the  process.  His  glory  at  the  end,  all  are  to  become 
ours.  But  gloiy  is  for  the  holy  alone ;  only  of  the  guests  found 
thus  clothed 'does  He  say — They  are  worthy;  they  are,  though 
by  grace  alone,  yet  through  the  acceptance  and  preservation  of 
that  grace,  as  much  as  is  in  man,  worthy  of  the  reward.  (The 
contrast  for  the  condemned  comes  after  in  ch.  xvi.  6  :  compare 
also  Matt.  xxii.  8.) 

He  that  oveecometh,  the  same  shall  be  clothed 
IN  white  eaiment;  and  I  avill  not  blot  out  his  name  out 

OF  THE  book  of  LIFE,  BUT  I  WILL  CONFESS  HIS  NAME  BE- 
FORE My  Father,  and  before  His  angels.    He  that  hath 

AN  ear,  let  HIM  HEAR  WHAT  THE    SpIRIT    SAITH  UNTO  THE 

CHURCHES.  The  figure  of  white  or  bright  garments,  which 
here  in  this  book  points  to  the  glorification  of  the  body,  and 
probably  also  to  a  previous  transitional  state,  at  the  same 
time  goes  back  to  the  putting  on  of  the  righteousness  which 
is  the  gift  of  the  grace  of  God :  thus  is  it  interpreted  expressly 
in  ch.  xix.  8.  It  is  the  priestly  pure  garment,  first  of  all  (comp. 
ch.  XV.  6),  in  which,  Zech.  iii.  4,  5,  the  unclean  high  priest, 
was  arrayed  when  his  sin  was  removed  ;  the  robe  of  righteous- 
ness. Is.  Ixi.  10.  But  this  festal  wedding-garment,  or  "  iniputed" 
righteousness,  not  being  perfectly  valid  without  the  holiness 
which  grows  out  of  it — which  the  Reformation-theory,  and 
the  subsequent  dogmatics  of  the  Church,  did  not  sufficiently  em- 
phasize, however  correctly  acknowledged — the  same  gannent 
is  finally  exhibited  as  resplendent  glory.     Thus,  in  the  mean- 

M 


178  THE  EPISTLE  TO  SAEDIS. 

ing  of  tlie  promise,  the  bright  garments  are  something  other  and 
greater  than  the  clean,  of  which  they  are  the  reward.  He  that 
overcometh,  even  he,  only  he  and  no  other : — this  has  a  specific 
emphasis  in  the  Greek,  which  cannot  well  be  translated.^  As 
Sardis,  on  the  whole,  has,  alas  !  only  the  name  to  live,  so,  on  the 
contrary,  the  names  of  those  who  overcome  in  the  conflict  with 
this  death,  twice  mentioned  and  acknowledged  with  emphasis  by 
the  Lord,  are  to  be  inscribed  in  the  hooh  of  life,  where  they 
shall  remain  and  never  be  blotted  out  or  taken  away.  This  last 
appears,  in  passing,  to  be  directed  against  the  Reformed  pre- 
destination dogmatics,  even  as  the  former  word  concerning  the 
true  wedding-garment  was  directed  against  the  practical  perver- 
sion'of  the  Lutheran  doctrine  of  justification.  The  hook  of  life 
— see  further  ch.  xiii.  8,  xx.  12,  xxi.  27 — occurs  also  Phil, 
iv.  3;  as  also  in  the  Old  Testament  Ps.  Ixix.  28  ;  Is.  iv.  3 ;  Dan. 
xii.  1  (vii.  10).  It  is  of  most  weighty  significance  in  connection 
with  this,  that,  in  the  fii'st  place  of  Holy  Writ  in  which  this 
phrase  occurs,  Ex.  xxxii.  32,  we  read  of  a  blotting  out  of  the  book 
(like  Ps.  Ixix.  28) ;  as  also  that  there  is  not  in  the  entire  Scripture, 
not  even  the  book  of  Revelation,  any  mention  of  a  contrasted 
"  book  of  death."  This  intimates  to  us  that  men  redeemed  by 
'Christ  are,  through  a  primary  gracious  will  of  God,  appointed 
and  written  down  for  salvation ;  while  the  lost  are  themselves 
the  guilty  cause  that  they  must  be  rejected  and  blotted  out. 
And  even  this  last  promise  for  Sardis  confirms  our  prophetic 
interpretation  of  this  church,  which  unprejudiced  exposition 
suggests,  but  which  \ve  do  not  insist  upon  as  infallible.  To  the 
church  of  Confessions  the  Lord  speaks  only  of  His  confessing 
those  who  overcome  in  her ;  for  this  is  most  plainly  involved  in 
the  concluding  word,  which  almost  literally  refers  to  Matt.  x. 
32  and  Luke  xii.  8,  pointing  again,  like  ver.  3,  forward  to  the 
last  day  of  judgment.^  Herder  goes  too  far  when  he  says  that 
the  wliole  Epistle  is  written  in  the  words  of  Christ,  which  He 
spoke  while  yet  upon  earth  ;  but  certainly  there  are  many  such 
allusions  to  His  own  word,  now  expressly  opened  up  anew  to 

'  Generally,  we  cannot  exactly  reproduce  the  interchangeable  forms  in 
the  concluding  promises,  rui  utx-uvrt — o  vikuv  ;  and  in  the  case  of  Sardis  the 
additional  ofrwj-,  for  which  we  cannot  accept  the  ovrag  of  the  critics,  which 
yields  no  proper  meaning. 

*  But  the  Lord  cannot  now  continue  to  say — Before  My  Father  in  heaven. 


REV.  III.  7-13.  179 

tills  church.  We  may  refer,  in  conclusion,  to  Luke  xxii.  32  , 
Matt.  xxiv.  42-44  (also  what  follows  there  in  its  impressive 
adaptation  to  Sardis !),  xxii.  8,  11,  x.  32. 

And  to  the  angel  of  the  church  in  Philadelphia 
WRITE ;  These  things  saith  He  that  is  holy,  He  that  is 
TRUE,  He  tbl\t  hath  the  key  of  David  ;  He  that  open- 

ETH,  AND  NO  MAN  SHUTTETH  ;  AND  SHUTTETH,  AND  NO  MAN 

OPENETH.  The  Lydian  city  of  Philadelphia,  so  called  from 
its  builder,  Iving  Attalus,  surnamed  Philadelphus  or  lover  of  his 
brother,  was  the  seat  of  a  small  church  in  the  time  of  St  John ; 
and  here  gives  its  beautiful  name,  in  the  prophetical  meaning 
of  the  heavenly  writer,  as  the  symbol  of  a  period  and  character 
of  the  Church  which  has  for  its  signature  hrotlierhj  love.  This 
is  of  all  the  names  the  most  obvious  in  its  prophetic  meaning, 
so  that  the  confusion  which  has  been  fallen  into  by  some  ex- 
positors seems  to  us  matter  of  wonder.  Even  the  circumstance 
that  Philadelphia  lay  at  the  foot  of  Mount  Tmolus,  close  to 
Sardis^  is  not  without  useful  application.  If  we  have  in  any 
measure  found  the  interpretation  of  Sardis,  the  transition  now 
to  the  next  presentation  of  the  Church  suggests  itself  at  once : 
the  faithful  in  Thyatira  prepared  the  way  for  Sardis,  and  now 
the  acknowledged  kernel  of  Sardis  comes  out  into  prominence 
as  Philadelphia;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  only  out  of  the 
reproved  mass  could  Laodicea  spring.  Philadelphia,  placed  in 
the  midst  between  Sardis  and  Laodicea,  is  the  coimterpart  of 
both.  She  does  not  glory  in  her  name,  nor  does  she  think  her- 
self rich  and  satiated ;  but  is  blessed  in  her  little  strength  and 
faithful  patience,  and  commended  and  encouraged  far  beyond 
all  the  other  churches.  Not  even  Ephesus  stands  so  entirely 
in  the  Lord's  presence.  We  are  forbidden,  by  the  sad  and 
incontrovertible  history  of  the  church  which  sprang  from  the 
so-called  Reformation,  to  interpret  Philadelphia  generally,  and 
Avithout  qualification,  of  that  church.  But  it  is  at  the  same  time 
evident  that  a  Philadelphia  could  not  follow  Sardis,  and  an  evil 
Laodicea  again  follow  her,  in  definite  and  exclusive  periods ; 
the  clear  meaning  of  the  word,  apart  from  mere  prophetic  in- 
terpretation, will  constrain  us  to  adopt  the  view  to  which  we 
have  already  given'  preliminary  expression.     If,  generally,  the 

1  About  five  Roman  miles  nearer  than  Sardis  to  Thyatira,  wliich  are  the 
two  least  distances  of  the  whole. 


180  THE  EPISTLE  TO  PHILADELPHIA. 

intermingling  presentations  of  the  Church  from  the  beginning 
exliibited  their  respective  characteristics  as  more  or  less  passing 
into  each  other  and  co-existing,  it  is  obvious  that  this  will  be 
still  more  the  case  as  the  end  approaches :  Philadelphia,  as  well 
as  Laodicea,  are  prepared  for  in  Sardis,  and  reach  onwards  to 
the  close  of  the  Church's  history  in  the  coming  of  the  Lord. 

We  cannot  say  (with  Meyer)  that  the  attributes  of  the 
Lord's  first  manifestation  are  exhausted,  so  that  He  must  give 
Himself  new  names  for  this  new  church ;  nor  (with  Ebrard) 
maintain  that  the  title  here  given  is  no  longer  derived  from  the 
first  description  of  His  person,  but  chosen  with  strict  relation 
to  tlie  condition  of  the  church  addressed.  For,  the  hey  cer- 
tainly does  look  back  to  the  final  saying  of  ch.  i.  18 ;  and 
what  precedes  is  only  an  addition  similar  to  "  Son  of  God,"  in 
the  Epistle  to  Thyatira,  and  already  prepares  the  way  for  the 
concluding  summary  to  Laodicea  (ver.  14).  The  Amen,  the 
True  and  Faithful  Witness,  coincides  almost  exactly  with  "  He 
that  is  holy,  and  He  that  is  true."  Later,  in  ch.  vi.  10,  the 
same  description  returns;  and  ch.  xix.  11  substitutes  very 
evidently  ^^  faithful  and  true."  The  Holy  One  reminds  us  of 
the  phrase  which  occurs  almost  only  in  Isaiah,  The  Holy  One 
of  Israel.  Thus  is  termed  there  the  Lord  God,  in  whose  place 
the  Son  of  God  appears  here,  not  only  as  being  beyond  all 
comparison  (Is.  xl.  25),  but  in  His  revelation  of  Himself  as  Love 
ever  faithful^  glorious,  and  to  be  praised  above  all  things ;  love 
true  to  itself  in  condescending  greatness,  and  in  the  greatness  of 
its  condescension.  Both  united  in  one  here  are  the  expression  of 
sublime,  rejoicing,  protecting  complacency  in  that  church,  which 
had  beyond  others  kept  His  word  without  denying  His  name  (vers. 
8,  10),  and  derived  its  own  name  from  love.  He  that  is  holy  is 
also  He  that  is  true,  who  never  denieth  Himself,  never  changeth ; 
as  in  1  Sam.  xv.  29  was  said  of  the  Abiding  One  in  Israel.^ 

This  Holy  and  True  One,  faithful  and  unchangeable  in  the 
pure  love  which  is  His  essence,  has  now,  as  the  Son,  supreme 
authority  for  the  government  of  the  house  and  kingdom  of  God 
upon  earth ;  in  His  hand  is  the  hey  of  David.     These  words, 

^  We  would  request  tliose  wlio  have  tlic  opportunity  to  consult  our  com- 
mentary on  this  passage  in  Isaiah,  as  also  the  remarts  upon  John  xvii.  11. 

^  Luther  translates,  without  any  good  meaning,  der  Held.  The  Hebrew 
^  ^'^?,i  one  of  the  profouudest  words  of  the  Old  Testament. 


EEV.  III.  7-13.  181 

w'liicli  once  more  go  back  to  the  Old  Testament  types,  are  easily 
understood;   especially  if  we  connect  with  them  the  passage, 
Is.  xxii.  22,  which  is  almost  verbally  quoted  in  the  context. 
Opening  and  shutting  are  suggested  by  the  key :    first,  with 
reference  to  the  inhabitants,  opening  is  concerned,  and  this  in 
the  Hebrew  gives  its  name  to  the  key ;  but  sluitting  also  is  in- 
volved, and  this  gives  the  key  its  name  in  the  Greek,  as  also 
in  the  German.    Reference  is  here  made  to  the  key  of  supreme 
authority  in  both  respects ;  and  that  holds  good  which  is  figu- 
ratively said  in  Job  xii.  14,  "  When  He  shutteth,  no  man  can 
open !"     But  no  man  can  shut  when  He  in  His  grace,  as  it  is 
always  and  everywhere  His  good  pleasure'  to  do,  openeth  !    The 
kei/s,  in  the  plural  (in  ch.  i.  18   still  more  solemnly  and  ex- 
pressly used  of  the  gates,  the  entrance  and  exit  of  death  and 
of  hell),  become  now — not  without  connection  with  the  autho- 
rity of  the  keys  generally,  which  is  given  to  the  conqueror  for 
all  doors  of  every  kind — the  key  of  David.     Stilling  would 
strangely  interpret  this  of  "  the  subterranean  regions ;"  but  the 
typical  David  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  opening  of  Hades,  or 
any  other  subterranean  and  hidden  region ;  and,  moreover,  there 
was  not  any  necessity  for  the  threatening  (or  promising)  refer- 
ence to  death  and  hell,  in  the  case  of  this  faithful  church.    The 
superscription  refers  at  the  outset,  by  anticipation,  to  the  giving 
of  an  open  door,  ver.  8.     In  the  book  of  Isaiah,  where  ch.  xxii. 
gives  us  a  representative  picture  of  the  Avhole  on  a  small  scale, 
the  proud  treasurer  Shebna  being  cast  out  of  his  office,  and 
Eliakim  (that  is,  "  the  Lord  will  set  up ")  being  put  in  his 
place,  we  have  the  expression  in  the  fuller  historical  style — the 
key  of  the  house  of  David.   But  here  the  same  meaning  is  given 
in  a  more  condensed  form,  "  the  key  of  David,"  in  order  to 
make  prominent  the  typical  phrase,  and  to  exhibit  Christ  as  the 
fulfiller  of  the  type,  the  true  King  David  over  the  house,  and 
kingdom,  and  people  of  God.   When  we  penetrate  more  deeply 
into  its  prophetic  significance  for  Philadelphia,  there  may  ap- 
pear to  be  another  meaning  in  the  background,  beside  the  open- 
ing and  shutting  of  the  door,  in  the  success  of  the  Word  for  the 
spread  of  the  kingdom.      For  He-  speaks  here,  who  also  in 
Matt.  xvi.  19  spoke  of  keys  in  His  house  and  Idngdom  upon 
earth,  which  were  to  be  given  to  His   disciples.      And  we 
mark  that,  after  in  Thyatira  the  "  successors  of  St  Peter," 


182  THE  EPISTLE  TO  PHILADELPHIA. 

and  not  merely  they,  but  their  imitators  in  Sardis/  had  carried 
the  doctrine  of  the  keys  to  most  exaggerated  perversion,  the 
Lord  comes  forward  Himself  to  Philadelphia : — I,  the  supreme 
Holder  of  all  authority  of  the  keys,  to  receive  and  to  reject  in 
My  Chui'ch ;  I  have  never  given  up  this  power,  but  use  it  Myself 
from  age  to  age,  I  alone  in  holiness  and  truth !  ^ 

I  KNOW  THY  WORKS  :  BEHOLD,  I  HAVE  SET  BEFORE  THEE 
AN  OPEN  DOOR,  WHICH  NO  MAN  CAN  SHUT  ;  FOR  THOU  HAST 
A  LITTLE  STRENGTH,  AND  HAST  KEPT  My  WORD,  AND  HAST 
NOT  DENIED  My  NAME.  To  the  absolute  /  hiow  thy  loorhs  ! 
which  stands  here  alone  for  uniformity,  is  appended,  without 
any  mention  of  faitli  or  love,  the  encouraging  declaration  of 
what  the  Lord  had  done  for  Philadelphia,  which,  speaking  of 
what  was  given,  promises  still  more ;  and  then  first  follows,  as 
the  commended  susceptibility  for  the  Lord's  gift,  their  httle, 
but  f aithfvdly-used  strength.  "  Well  for  him,  whose  charac- 
terisation requires  nothing  more  to  be  said  than  what  ^he  Lord 
has  done  in  him !  A  sign  that  such  a  man  has  let  the  Lord 
accomplish  His  work."  Thus  does  Ebrard  keenly  and  truly 
describe  the  "  noble  delineation"  of  the  state  of  Philadelphia. 
The  "  behold,"  so  frequent  in  the  ancient  prophets,  which  was 
spoken  only  once  to  Smyrna  as  noting  the  temptation,  and  only 
once  to  Thyatira  as  conveying  a  threatening,  and  to  Laodicea 
once  more  in  connection  with  warning  and  exhortation,  ver. 
20,  is  addressed  to  Philadelphia  thrice  in  connection  with  the 
highest  grace  and  honour.^  The  liberal  Giver,  who  giveth 
everything  out  of  His  all-governing  hand,  hath  given  before  this 
church  an  open  door,  which  shall  be  shut  of  no  man,  but  shall 
be  more  and  more  open  in  spite  of  all  opposers.  This  is  not 
a  door  of  access  or  entrance  into  His  "  temple"  (into  which 
Philadelphia  does  not  need  admission) ;  but  it  corresponds  to 
a  phrase  of  the  great  Apostle,  which  the  Holy  Ghost  suggested 
and  stamped  upon  more  than  one  passage  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment. St  Paul  wrote  from  Ephesus  : — A  great  door  of  full 
activity  is  opened  to  me,  and  there  are  many  enemies  (who  shall, 

^  According  to  Luther's  well-known  saying :  There  is  no  little  priest  wlio 
might  not  make  a  little  pope. 

^  Philadelphia  is  the  symbol  of  a  church  in  which  the  office  pf  the  keys 
is  truly  administered.     Leyrer. 

^  In  ver.  11  it  is  a  spurious  reading  from  ch.  xxii.  7. 


REV.  III.  7-13.  183 

nevertheless,  not  be  able  to  shut  it)  :  1  Cor.  x\'i.  9.  Similarly 
again  in  2  Cor.  ii.  12 ;  and  most  plainly,  Col.  iv.  3 :  Pray  for 
us,  that  God  may  open-  to  us  a  door  of  the  word}  This  entrance, 
■^•hich  the  messengers  of  the  Lord  find  for  their  preaching 
(1  Thess.  i.  9),  includes  at  the  same  time,  as  it  is  said  before 
the  Church  to  the  glory  of  God  in  Acts  xiv.  27,  the  opening 
of  the  door  of  faith  for  the  Heathen,  as  an  earnest  of  that  time 
when  the  gates  of  the  city  of  God  stand  open  day  and  night 
for  the  Gentiles,  whereof  Is.  Ix.  11,  and  Rev.  xxi.  25,  26, 
prophesy.  Thus  the  Lord  promises  a  prosperous  and  unhin- 
dered career  of  missions,  as  in  the  apostolical  time  to  Ephcsus, 
to  Philadelphia,  the  final  and  most  favoured  church,  the  plain 
prophetic  name  of  which  speaks  of  entrance  into  the  union 
of  brotherly  love.  Plere  we  have  the  key  for  the  opening  of 
the  mystery  of  this  church,  this  most  brightly  shining  star  and 
candlestick. 

\{q  ask  whether  that  is  of  itself  appropriate  to  the  first 
church  of  the  Reformation ;  and  let  history  give  the  answer. 
Even  the  entrance  into  the  rest  of  Christendom  was  presently 
shut  again,  and  Jezebel  remained  enthroned  in  unchanged 
Thyatira;  but  the  mission  to  the  Heathen,  of  which  the  word 
pre-eminently  speaks,  was  long  held  back.  Richter,  the  Li- 
spector  of  ^Missions,  might  have  learned  in  his  official  capacity 
something  better  than  what  he  writes  in  his  Bible  (with  much 
else  that  is  confused  and  arbitrary)  :  "  Many  seek  Philadelphia 
merely  in  attempts  at  union ;  but  the  Evangelical  Church, 
especially  the  Lutheran,  does  not  malce  union,  but  is  union." 
We  understand  this  self-contradicting  word  too  well  to  be 
misled  by  it.  Certainly  we  do  not  seek  the  Philadelphian 
community  in  ecclesiastical-political  attempts  at  union ;  nor 
alone  or  pre-eminently  in  that  which  noio,  under  the  beautiful 
name  of  union,  is  feebly  and  preparatorily  sought  after;  but  still 
less  do  we  seek  it  in  that  Lutheran  Church  which  recognises  no 
other  union  than  that  of  entering  like  good  Catholics  into  her 
bosom.  The  very  name  of  Lutheran,  so  firmly  held  fast — we 
hold  to  this,  let  men  say  what  they  will ! — plainly  denies  that 
immediate  dependence  on  the  one  only  Name  in  wdiich  salvation 

*  Then  no  longer  defended  against  enemies,  as  a  castle  and  fortress.  Then 
will  come  into  it  those  who  peacefully  enter,  whereas  before  conquerors  went 
forth  amongst  them  from  it. 


184  THE  EPISTLE  TO  PHILADELPHIA. 

is  given  to  all  men  under  heaven,  and  does  not  acknowledge  tlie 
walking  of  the  Lord  amid  the  seven  golden  candlesticks.  The 
true  Philadelphia  must  be  willing  to  abolish,  and  mvrst  actually 
in  reparation  abolish,  the  great  unjustifiable  di^-ision  and  contro- 
versy through  which  Sardis  came  to  her  end  ;  she  must  not  hold 
fast  the  fundamental  error  which  has  crept  in,  and  which  has 
been  so  lamentably  refuted  by  all  histoiy,  that  life  and  the  right 
of  belonging  to  the  "true  church"  depends  upon  a  mere  human 
system  of  "  pure  doctrine,"  going  beyond  the  fundamental 
doctrines  of  salvation.  As  it  respects,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
aspirations  after  union,  which  have  in  earlier  and  later  times 
proceeded  from  a  pure  Philadelphian  mind,  we  agree  with  tlie 
Berlenb.  Bible,  which  says,  "  Who  will  despise  the  day  of 
small  things  ?  (Zech.  iv.  10.)  How  small  was  the  number 
[better,  how  little  was  the  strength]  from  which  Philadelphia 
was  to  arise  as  a  testimony !  just  as  out  of  the  remainder  of 
Sardis  Laodicea  was  to  spring." 

It  is  a  position  of  sure  and  profound  truth,  both  for  theory 
and  practice,  that  Union  and  Missions  stand  or  fall  together  in 
.  the  Church ;  in  their  inmost  principle  the  two  are  one,  being 
the  expression  of  life  among  Christians,  under  two  several  but 
mutually  confirming  aspects.  So  far  as  believers  are  perfected 
into  one,  the  world  knoweth  the  power  and  glory  of  the  Lord 
in  this  Chm'ch.  Job.  xvii.  23.  Richter  says,  that  "the  work  of 
missions  must  be  carried  on  through  the  union  of  all  time 
Christians,  of  all  confessions,  in  common  fellowship  of  labour." 
This  is  the  character  and  seal  of  Philadelphia.  Has  not  the 
Lord,  since  the  beginning  of  this  century  —  without  despising 
former  endeavours  —  been  openly  illustrating  and  fulfilling  His 
^^  Behold,  I  have  given  you  an  open  door!"  in  the  fellowship  of 
those  who  have  been  seeking  the  true  union  ?  And  will  the 
more  bigoted  Lutheran  Missions,  which  despise  or  know  nothing 
of  this  blessing,  have  equal  success  ?  We  wait  a  while,  and 
shall  see. 

Philadelphia  was  first  most  clearly  illustrated  by  the  Chm'ch 
of  the  Brethren  ;  and  Luther  himself  long  before  might  have 
been  admonished  by  their  ancestors,  the  old  Bohemian  Brethren, 
not  to  neglect  the  foundation,  the  lack  of  which  was  exhibited 
in  the  words  to  Sardis,  ver.  2.  And,  notwithstanding  all  the 
error  and  weakness  which  adhered  to  their  institution,  they 


EEV.  III.  7-13.  185 

were  actually  the  first  who  carried  forth  the  missionary  stand- 
ard. Not  that  we  would  interpret  (like  Brunn,  but  without 
any  excuse  ncio)  Philadelphia  as  meaning  Hemihut:  this  little 
company,  and  its  little  strength,  was  always  from  the  beginning 
too  small  for  that.  But  this  interpretation  was,  when  it  was 
first  put  fonvard,  based  upon  a  right  principle,  and  pointed  in 
the  right  direction.  We  trust  that  the  Lord  will  raise  up,  out 
of  all  the  manifold  efforts  after  union,  the  pure  germ  of  a  much 
larger  community  of  brethren: — how  soon  or  how  late,  we 
know  not;  men,  alas!  have  too  much  power  to  hinder  the  work 
of  Plis  grace. 

Tiiou  HAST. — In  the  same  half-praising,  half-blaming  for- 
mula, beginning  in  ch.  ii.  6,  it  was  said  to  Sardis,  Thou  hast 
only  a  few  who  have  not  defiled  themselves  !  Now,  to  the 
collected  and  combining  Philadelphia,  on  the  other  hand,  Thou 
hast  a  little  strength  (or  might,  to  war  and  conquer) : — but  on 
that  account  she  is  blessed  of  the  Lord,  who  doeth  great  things 
from  beginning  to  end  by  little  means.  Rieger  remarks,  that 
the  manner  in  which  this  mention  of  the  little  strength  is  woven 
into  the  testimony  of  the  Faithful  One,  gives  us  to  suppose  that 
"  the  angel  of  Philadelphia  has  the  words  given  back  to  him 
which,  in  his  lamentation  before  the  Lord,  he  had  frequently 
made  use  of."  He  who  knows  and  feels  his  own  weakness,  de- 
pends all  the  more  faithfully  on  the  Lord's  grace  for  the  weak: 
only  in  this  spirit  will  the  Lord's  pure  and  really  evangelical 
Church — in  the  midst  of  Sardis  and  Laodicea,  and  not  without 
some  from  Thyatira  too,  standing  in  the  Lord's  might  upon  the 
basis  of  union — go  on  more  and  more  abundantly  to  conquer; 
and  the  doors  at  the  threshold  of  Christendom  everywhere  shall 
no  more  be  shut  against  her.  "  God  is  more  quick  with  the 
open  door  than  we  are; — were  only  the  people  ready,  who 
would  begin  with  a  feeble  few !"  (Berl.  Bible.)  The  Lord  here 
encourages  the  little  strength  by  pointing  to  a  blessing  already 
received,  and  would  have  it  more  earnest  in  its  endeavours  after 
more ;  for  fidelity  in  that  which  is  least  has  its  own  appropriate 
promise.  Only  to  the  Philadelphians  does  the  Faithful  Witness 
give  the  perfect  testimony —  Thou  hast  kept  My  word,  Thou  hast 
in  thy  sound  confessions  not  denied  My  name;  though  doubtless 
Philadelphia  Avas  not  without  temptation  enough.  He  adds  for 
the  faithful  a  further  and  higher  promise :  "  As  the  Heathen 


186  THE  EPISTLE  TO  PHILADELPHIA. 

will  hear  thy  voice,  My  voice  in  ISIy  word  spoken  by  thee,  so 
shall  many  come  from  false  Christendom,  and  give  thee  thy  due 
honour — that  is,  give  it  to  Me  in  thee." 

Behold,  I  will  make  them  of  the  synagogue  of 
Satan,  which  say  they  are  Jews,  and  aee  not,  but  do 
lie  ;  behold,  I  WILL  make  them  to  come  and  avorship 
before  thy  feet,  and  to  knoav  that  I  have  loved  thee. 
As  the  exhortation  to  Thyatira  began  with  threatening  and 
rebuke,  so  the  true  and  genuine  Philadelphia  receives  her 
exhortation  at  once  combined  with  promise  in  vers.  9,  10  —  and 
only  the  short  word,  ver.  11,  follows  as  simple  exhortation. 
For  the  fifth  and  last  time  in  these  Epistles,  the  Lord  from 
heaven  mentions  Satan,  and  without  any  Jewish  phraseology  or 
figure;  as  we  remarked  upon  Acts  xxvi.  28.  Smyrna's  position 
and  trial,  ch.  ii.  9,  returns ;  rather,  it  has  continued  on  since 
then  —  which  is  another  hint  of  the  mutually  interwoven  mean- 
ing of  these  seven  descriptions  of  the  Church's  state.  The  ex- 
pression is  made  more  intense,  and  now  runs — They  are  not, 
hut  do  lie.  It  is  obvious  of  itself,  that  only  presumptuous,  false 
Christiayis  can  here  be  meant.  ^  That  which  was  promised  in 
Is.  xlix.  23,  Ix.  14,  to  the  true  Israel  of  God  and  the  genuine 
"  Zion,"  should  be  fulfilled  in  the  beloved  and  true  Chm'ch  of 
Christ ;  partly  in  typical  prelude,  as  in  1  Cor.  xiv.  25  (knowing 
and  confessing  that  the  Lord  is  in  truth  among  this  people)  ; 
but  still  more  effectually  in  the  times  of  final  decision,  Mdien 
not  merely  some  among  them,  but  all  of  the  congregation  of 
Satan  who  are  still  susceptible  of  knowledge,  shall  give  the 
truth  its  honour,  and  say,  "  This  is  the  Church,  and  here  is  the 
Lord!"  Obviously,  the  " ivorshipjnng  at  thj/  feet"  refers  to 
the  Lord  Himself  in  His  despised  people,  who  have  now,  as  the 
antitype  of  EHakim,  Is.  xxii.,  received  the  place  of  honour; 
thus  the  additional  clause  obviates  all  misconception  —  they 
shall  know  that  /  have  loved  thee  !  (Compare  Is.  xliii.  4.) 
They  had  before  bitterly  contested  this  against  the  Lord's 
people,  but  they  shall  be  ashamed ;  and,  humbling  themselves, 
they  shall  confess  that  the  Lord  did  love  them,  and  moreover 

^  The  Apocalypse,  so  frequently  conclemued  as  Jewish,  nowhere  speaks 
expressly  of  Israel's  restoration  and  final  place  of  honour  :  only  in  ch.  xx. 
9  is  there  even  a  hidden  allusion  to  it.  Here  in  ch.  iii.  9  there  is  certainly 
no  allusion  to  the  conversion  of  the  Jews,  and  missions  to  that  people. 


REV.  in.  7-13.  187 

"sliall  know  that  I  am  He  on  whose  love  eveiything  de- 
pends." ^  Thus,  the  greatest  honom-  is  put  upon  Philadelphia ; 
and  in  this  love  of  the  Lord,  a  return  to  that  first  love  from 
which  Ephesus  fell,  is  presupposed  in  gi-acious  confidence.  She 
is  therefore  not  merely  a  penultimate  church,  which  would  yet 
once  more  give  way  to  apostasy;  but  (as  ver.  10  continues)  a 
community  kept  to  the  end,  which  the  coming  Lord  will  find 
by  the  side  of  Laodicea.  This  was  what  w^e  had  in  view  when 
we  said  that  Philadelphia  is  the  pure  and  genuine,^  united- 
evangelical  chui'ch,  collected  around  the  true  and  defended 
word,  in  living  unity. 

Because  thou  hast  kept  the  word  of  My  patience, 
I  also  will  keep  thee  from  the  hour  of  temptation, 
which  shall  come  upon  all  the  world,  to  try  them 
THAT  dwell  upon  THE  EARTH.  As  the  Lord  loves  all  men 
with  the  love  of  seeking  mercy,  while  He  loves  only  those  who 
love  Him  with  the  love  of  complacency  (John  xiv.  21,  xvi.  27), 
so  He  will  and  can  keep  those  only  who  keep  His  word.  That 
chm-ch  which  remains  faithful  to  the  last,  even  in  the  final  great 
temptation,  remains  finally  before  Him  as  kept  and  approved. 
If  Pie  says.  The  word  of  My  patience,  He  does  not  mean 
merely,  as  Zinzendorf  says,  "the  point  of  My  sufferings,"  or 
what  the  Scripture  terms  "  the  word  of  the  cross."  This  last 
is  indeed  at  the  foundation — so  that  it  certainly  does  not  mean, 
as  has  been  most  flatly  expounded,  "  My  commandment  to  be 
patient !"  St  John,  in  eh.  i.  9,  points  us  to  the  true  sense, 
which  Ebrard  well  exhibits  :  "  The  word  of  Christ,  so  far  as, 
being  the  word  concerning  the  cross,  it  is  not  a  word  of  triumph, 
but  of  patience  and  Waiting,  of  believing  and  hoping."  Phila- 
delphia held  to  this  word,  "  as  the  -whole  word  of  God,  to  its 
awakening  part  as  well  as  its  simply  dogmatic."  This  makes 
(in  the  faith  and  patience  of  the  saints,  ch.  xiv.  12,  xiii.  10)  of 
the  pm'e  doctrines  of   faith  a  matter   of   practice,  in  Avhich 

■^  So  V.  Gerlach  beautifully  says,  expressing  more,  perhaps,  than  he 
understood  in  his  own  words.  Oh  that  many  who  think  that  all  depends 
on  this,  or  that,  or  the  other,  would  remember  it ! 

-  "  Philadelphia  exhibits  to  us  the  church  in  which  the  first  brotherly 
love  begins  to  burn  in  many  hearts  ;  in  which  Christians  out  of  many  co7i- 
fessions  approximate,  assembling  round  the  w^ord  of  the  cross  as  a  common 
standard,  and  abounding  together  in  works  of  love."  (Sander.)     , 


188  THE  EPISTLE  TO  PHILADELPHIA. 

patience,  as  the  work  of  works,  approves  itself  perfect  unto  the 
end.  Jas.  i.  4.  That  end  is  brought  very  near  in  this  penulti- 
mate Epistle,  while  the  great  hour  of  temptation,  which  will 
precede  it,  is  made  prominent.  As  it  regards  the  immediate 
historical  meaning  for  the  typical  Philadelphia,  this  might  refer 
to  the  impending  severe  ^persecution  under  Domitian  or  Trajan; 
but  the  prophetic  meaning  shines  very  clearly  through  these 
words  to  our  view.  That  we  may  not  limit  the  "  whole 
earth,"  according  to  the  phraseology  of  that  time,  to  the  Roman 
Empire  (Luke  ii.  1 ;  Acts  xi.  28),  a  well-known  expression  is 
added  from  the  ancient  prophets,  with  reference  to  the  com- 
prehensive prediction  of  the  end, — "All  that  dwell  upon  earth." 
St  Paul,  2  Thess.  ii.,  prophesies  of  the  antichristian  apostasy 
as  of  a  power  of  delusion  ;  the  Lord  gave  the  same  intimation, 
Matt,  xxiv.  21-24 ;  and  further  particulars,  though  still  ob- 
scurely, are  given  in  the  Revelation,  ch.  xvii.  12,  with  allusion 
to  Dan.  Adi.  24.  This  how  of  temptation  will  correspond  to 
that  "  hoiu'"  of  temptation  through  the  power  of  darkness  which 
fell  upon  the  Forerunner  Himself.  He  that  shall  be  found 
in  watchfulness  and  prayer  keeping  His  word,  will  enjoy  the 
protection  here  promised,  and  will  conquer  in  the  Lord's 
strength,  though  he  also  must  enter  into  the  great  temptation 
or  trial.  That  our  commonly  called  Lutherans,  or  even  Re- 
formed, have  not  been  all  trained  to  such  warfare  and  victoiy, 
many  a  prelude  has  shown.  In  multitudes  will  they  go  over 
to  Antichrist ;  while  only  the  Philadelphians,  -with  those  saved 
at  the  last  hom*  out  of  Laodicea,  will  hear  the  voice  of  Him  who 
standeth  at  the  door,  and  become  the  guests  of  the  kingdom 
that  shall  be  set  up  after  the  conflict  at  the  resurrection  of  the 
dead. 

Concerning  this  catastrophe  of  judicial  decision,  this  inter- 
mediate coming  for  the  setting  up  of  the  kingdom,  the  gracious 
and  all-comprehending  exhortation  speaks  to  every  one  who  is 
numbered  among  those  "who  have" — I  come  quickly! 
Hold  fast  that  thou  hast,  that  no  man  take  thy 
CROWN  !^  This  is,  as  it  hangs  on  the  promise  of  ver.  10,  rather 
a  word  of  consolation  than  a  threatening  ;  yet  it  is  also  an  ex- 
hortation, the  only  one  of  which  Philadelphia  stood  in  need. 

1  The  "  Behold,"  prefixed  to  these  -words,  we  have  already  shown  to  be 
spurious. 


EEV.  III.  7-13.  189 

As  an  exhortation,  it  is  remarkably  like  that  to  the  faithful  in 
Thyatira,  ch.  ii.  25;  it  speaks  of  no  other  crown  than  the  crown 
of  life  (ch.  ii.  lOj  for  all  who  shall  be  finally  found  confirmed 
and  approved.  Before  the  end  no  man  is  crowned ;  although 
from  the  beginning,  and  throughout  all  the  conflict,  the  crown 
is  held  out  and  exhibited  as  a  reserved  treasure.  What  then 
must  the  church  of  Philadelphia  hold  fast  ?  That  which  she 
has !  But  what  has  she?  Not  yet  the  crown.  What  then  ? 
Her  little  strength  with  the  Lord's  great  help,  the  word  of  His 
patience  and  her  persevering  continuance  therein.  From  this 
we  may  gather  how  Incorrect  is  that  application  (so  common  in 
our  sermons  on  the  Reformation)  of  this  saying,  which  makes 
Philadelphia  the  Reformed  Chui'ch  in  opposition  to  antichristian 
Rome ;  as  if  by  the  "  crown"  was  to  be  understood  the  "  glory" 
or  "  especial  treasure"  of  the  evangelical,  or  Lutheran  Church, 
as  such.  The  original  speaks  with  quite  another  meaning  of 
quite  another  crown  for  quite  different  persons  :  it  says  rather — 
Hold  fast  thy  standing  In  grace  with  persevering  fidelity,  that 
no  man  may  receive  at  the  last  thy  crown  of  victory ;  that  is, 
instead  of  thyself.  Zinzendorf  s  pointed  note  hits  the  sense 
here — "  As  the  place  was  to  be  taken  from  the  first  church  !" 

Htm  that  overcometh  will  I  make  a  pillar  in  the 
TEMPLE  OF  My  God,  and  he  shall  go  no  more  out  :  and 

I  WILL  write  upon  HIM  THE  NAJ-IE  OF  My  GoD,  AND  THE 
NA3IE  OF  THE  CITY  OF  My  GoD,  WHICH  IS  NEW  JERUSALEM, 
W'HICH  COMETH  DO^VN  OUT  OF  HEAVEN  FROM  My  GoD  :  AND 
I  WILL  WRITE  UPON  HIM  My  NEW  NAME.  He  THAT  HATH  AN 
EAR,    LET    HIM    HEAR    WHAT    THE    SpIRIT    SAITH    UNTO    THE 

CHURCHES.  This  promise  once  more  rises  higher  than  the 
precechng,  and  opens  up  the  vision  of  the  firm  and  glorious 
foundation  of  the  city  of  God,  when  all  things  are  made  new. 
Four  times  "  My  God,"  in  solemn  and  stately  fulness — uttered 
by  the  heavenly  Son  of  Man  and  Son  of  God !  Nevertheless, 
in  this  lofty  and  sublime  glance  forward  to  the  last  things,  there 
is  at  the  same  time  a  backward  allusion — for,  heavenlj^  wisdom 
would  exercise  us,  as  the  Epistles  have  sho^vn,  in  the  art  of  dis- 
cerning the  shadowings  of  the  last  things  in  the  first,  throughout 
the  histories  and  narratives  of  Scriptm-e — to  the  records  of 
David's  house  concerning  Shebna  and  Eliakim  (already  pre- 
sented to  notice  in  ver.  7),  where  from  afar  the  old  and  new 


190  THE  EPISTLE  TO  PHILADELPHIA. 

Jerusalem,  or  Israel,  are  very  strikingly  pretypified  in  historical 
miniature.^  The  first  reference  to  this  is  the  expression,  so 
intensified  in  the  original,  "  shall  go  no  more  out"  ^ — that  is, 
shall  not  be  displaced  and  cast  out  as  Shebna  was  there.  And 
assuredly  also — Shall  not  be  broken  off  and  carried  away  like 
the  pillars  in  the  old  temple,  Jer.  lii.  17 ;  though  the  former 
allusion  pleases  us  better,  since  in  Is.  xxii.  Shebna  was  to  be 
cast  out  as  "  the  shame  of  his  Lord's  house,"  ver.  18,  while 
Eliakim,  ver.  23,  was  to  be  fastened  as  a  nail  in  a  sure  place, 
upon  which  the  glory  of  the  house  should  be  hung,  and  was  to 
be  a  glorious  throne  to  his  Father's  house.  But  here  the  words 
are  loftier :  I  will  make  him  a  pillar  in  the  temple  of  God ; 
which  certainly  does  not  mean  merely,  as  Lisco  says,  that  he 
should  remain  unchangeably  fixed  in  the  worship  of  the  sanc- 
tuary, like  a  shaft  which  moves  not  from  its  place  !  The  Lord 
speaks  here  in  the  same  sense  as  in  Gal.  ii.  9  apostolical  men 
are  called  the  pillars  of  the  Clim'ch  ;  though  not  here  of  the 
Church  still  in  contention,  but  of  the  consummate  temple  of 
glory.  Compare  the  echo  of  the  passage  in  Is.  Ivi.  5  ;  and 
then  reflect  what  a  promise  is  here  given  to  the  faithful  posses- 
sors of  the  little  strength  of  God  !  Yea,  then  shall  the  weak  be, 
as  we  read  in  Zech.  xii.  8,  like  David,  and  become  like  firm  and 
stable  pillars  of  the  finished  building ;  because  all  temptation 
will  have  been  overcome,  and  all  danger  of  falling  done  away. 
The  three  names  Avritten  upon  the  pillar,  or  him  that  overcometh 
(in  the  figure  they  coincide),  correspond  to  the  Triunity,  just  as 
in  ch.  xiii.  6  ;  a  remarkable  passage,  where,  in  connection  with 
God,  His  name  (in  the  Son)  and  His  tabernacle  (the  spiritual 
building  in  the  Holy  Ghost)  are  mentioned.^  We  now  under- 
stand, it  may_  be  hoped,  after  all  that  has  preceded,  why  the 
perfected,  true,  and  eternal  Church,  the  new  Jerusalem  which 
will  finally  come  down  out  of  heaven  (ch.  xxi.  2,  3;  consequently 
not  a  church  of  temporal  manifestation),  is  opened  in  the  pro- 
mise to  Philadelphia,  the  only  church  which  is  fully  acknow- 
ledged.   We  may  say — This  is  "  Philadelphia;"  the  unity  of  love 

^  So  I  observed  in  my  "  Isaiah,"  without  then  thinking  of  the  Apocalypse. 

"  "E|(i)  ov  /^vj  sIsA^jj  'in. 

'  According  to  Meyer's  profound  exposition  in  the  Bl.  fiir  h.  TTahrheit, 
viii.  §  307.  (Comp.  also  1  Cor.  vi.  11.  The  name  of  Jesus  in  connection 
with  the  Spirit.) 


REV.  III.  14-22.  191 

perfect,  and  superabundantly  exceeding  that  earnest  of  fir^st 
love  which  the  Pentecostal  church  exhibited  to  us.  The  three 
names — of  God,  and  His  city  or  tabernacle,  and  His  Son,  who 
speaketh — are  essentially  One.  The  name  of  Him  who  speak- 
eth  closes  in  solemn  confirmation  - — And  Mine,  the  neio  name  ! 
(Compare,  once  more,  ch.  xiv.  1,  xix.  12,  xxii.  4.)  The  new  name 
of  glory,  of  victory,  never  yet  fully  revealed,  will,  when  the  king- 
dom of  the  Cross  is  past,  shine  forth  in  the  eternal  City  of  God 
upon  all  who  are  built  there  as  pillars.  It  seems  almost  a  mar- 
vellous coincidence,  in  the  Divine  providential  government,  that 
the  historical  Philadelphia,  to  which  this  promise  was  symboli- 
cally sent,  is  now  called  by  the  Tui'ks  "  Allah-Schahr,"  that  is, 
the  city  of  God. 

AXD  UNTO  THE  ANGEL  OF  THE  CHURCH  IN  LaODICEA 

A^-RiTE :  These  things  saith  the  Amen,  the  faithful 
AND  true  Witness,  the  beginning  (the  original)  of  the 
CREATION  OF  GoD.  In  the  final  Epistle  the  title  of  the  Re- 
deemer at  once  rises  to  the  highest  grandeur,  for  the  supreme 
glory  and  authentication  of  Him  loho  speaketh.  For  in  Laodicea 
we  find  a  church  which  is  least  of  all  disposed  to  hear  and 
receive  counsel.  The  place  thus  named,  in  earlier  times  often 
laid  waste  by  earthquakes,  and  utterly  ruined  since  Timur  (1402), 
is  now  replaced  by  a  Turkish  village  called  "  Eskihissar."  We 
find  its  chiu'ch  mentioned  elsewhere  in  the  New  Testament, 
Col.  ii.  1,  iv.  13,  16  ;  and  it  is  to  us  extremely  probable  that,  in 
the  circle  of  churches  for  which  the  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians 
was  designed  as  an  encyclical  letter,  Ephesus  was  the  first  and 
Laodicea  the  last.^  The  designation  which  the  Lord  now  gives 
to  Himself  is  no  longer  a  single  one,  and  definitely  derived  from 
anything  in  His  earlier  manifestation ;  but  in  its  meaning  it 
sums  up  that  entire  manifestation,  and  in  a  certain  sense  may 
be  said  to  refer  to  the  commencement  of  His  words  on  that 
occasion — I  am  the  First  and  the  Last.  Here  we  have  first — 
The  Amen,  in  which  with  sublime  boldness  the  "  verily"  of 
our  Lord's  preface  to  His  utterances  upon  earth — swearing  by 
Himself — is  made  into  a  substantive  name  of  His  person;  at 
the  same  time  with  allusion  to  a  word  of  the  prophet,  referring 
to  the  last  time,  concerning  the  finally  acknowledged  God  Amen, 

'  This  will  be  found  established  in  my  Commentary  on  the  Ephesians,  i. 
S.  8-11. 


192  THE  EPISTLE  TO  LAODICEA. 

Is.  Ixv.  16.^  This  Amen,  as  tlie  personal  independent  Truth,  is 
now  the  true  and  faithful  Witness  :  He  being  immediately  such; 
while  all  who  before  or  after  Him  testify  the  truth  of  God  are 
only  Himself,  who  speaks  and  bears  witness  through  them. 
This  expression,  again  allusive  to  Is.  Iv.  4,  is  not,  as  has  been 
inconsiderately  said,  "  derived  from  Rev.  i.  5  ;"  on  the  contraiy, 
St  John  takes  the  greeting  at  the  beginning  of  his  book  from 
the  before-received  word  of  the  Lord  Himself.  Because  proud 
Laodicea  is  wise  in  her  own  conceit,  and  must  be  sharply 
rebuked,  the  Lord  Himself  confronts  her — Is  it  not  I,  who 
speak  the  truth  ?  Wilt  thou  contend,  and  maintain  thy  cause, 
against  Me  ?  To  raise  this  to  the  highest  pitch.  He  terms  Him- 
self finally  the  Beginning  of  the  creation  or  creature  (all  crea- 
tm'es)  of  God  ;  that  is,  not  indeed  the  first  creation,"  but  rather 
the  original  and  primal  ground  (^principimn  creandi),  as  in  John  i. 
1-3  and  Col.  i.  15  (correctly,  if  not  literally  after  the  original — 
the  first-begotten  before  all  creatures),  is  meant.  In  Prov.  viii. 
22,  23,  the  same  idea  evidently  shines  out  of  the  midst  of  the 
Old  Testament.  If  we  compare  the  still  more  strictly  corre- 
sponding passage.  Rev.  i.  8,  where  He  terms  Himself,  after  the 
"  Yea,  Amen,^  the  Alpha  and  Omega,^  we  must  observe  what 
He  would  here  say  to  Laodicea.  Since  the  Amen  specifically 
refers  to  the  subsequent  confirmation  and  fulfilment  of  every 
promise  and  every  threatening  (2  Cor  i.  20),  and,  as  Meyer 
excellently  says,  is  the  confirming  end  of  all  prayers,  we  have 
in  this  word  here  the  title  which  runs  back  from  the  Omega  to 
the  Alpha  ;  He  is  the  fulfilling,  victoriously  self-approving  Last^ 
as  He  is  the  First  in  and  before  all  creation — but  in  the  midst, 
between  the  beginning  and  the  end.  He  is  the  faithful  Witness, 
as  He  openly  proclaimed  Himself  in  the  days  of  His  flesh.  As 
the  Beginning  of  the  creation  of  God,  He  knoics  every  creature 
through  and  throvigh  ;  He  knows  what  is  in  it,  in  order  that  He 
may  bear  His  sure  testimony.     To  tins  He  at  once  points — 

1  This  is  the  translation  of  the  Hebrew,  instead  of  Luther's  weakening 
phrase. 

*  It  is  melancholy  to  read  the  heretical  note  of  Brandt's  Schullehrerbibel : 
"  Jesns  reckons  Himself  with  the  creation  of  God" — to  explain  Col.  i.  15! 
What  dpx,'^  TT/S  icri'iii);  and  ■Trpurorox.'jg  Tnian;  x-rmug  properly  denote,  could 
be  made  clear  only  in  a  theosophical  treatise. 

'  With  a  dubious  additional — The  beginning  and  the  end —  which  is  only 
an  explanation. 


KEV.  III.  U-22.  193 

^\^io  hath  the  truth  to  say  to  thee,  and  with  most  supreme  right 
declareth  to  thee  in  thj  blindness,  I  know — what  thou  knowest 
not !  ^ 

I  KNOW  THY  WORKS,  THAT  THOU  ART  NEITHER  COLD  NOR 
HOT  :  I  WOULD  THOU  WERT  COLD  OR  HOT.  So  THEN  BE- 
CAUSE THOU  ART  LUKEWARM,  AND  NEITHER  COLD  NOR  HOT, 
I    WILL  SPUE    THEE    (LITERALLY,    I  DESIGN   TO    SPUE    THEE) 

OUT  OF  My  mouth.  This  is,  verily,  a  keen  word,  the  most 
fearfully  severe  in  all  the  Seven  Epistles.  No  denunciation  of 
judgment  elsewhere  cuts  so  sharply  and  bitterly.  Fearful  it  is 
to  thmk  that  there  could  be  at  that  time  a  historical  Laodicea 
deserving  such  a  denunciation  as  this  !  In  this  last  Epistle  the 
second  and  third  parts,  the  "  I  know"  and  the  resulting  appeal, 
pass  one  into  the  other.  The  first  disclosure  of  their  lukewarm- 
ness  is  the  foundation  of  a  threatening ;  the  exliibition  of  their 
proud  blindness,  and  the  not  knowing  of  ver.  17,  introduces  a 
counsel  to  them  to  receive  help  ;  with  that  connects  itself,  vers. 
19,  20,  the  exhortation  which  now  passes  into  gracious  promise. 
But  even  here  the  rule  is  preserved,  and  first  comes  "  thy  worhs^^ 
— though  in  Laodicea  there  were  works  only  of  a  miserable  kind, 
as  it  were  no-works,  so  that  the  Lord  says  nothing  more  about 
them  and  their  A\'retched  negation,  but  proceeds  to  the  exposure 
of  their  inner  mind.  Nevertheless,  in  all  these  Epistles  He  urges 
the  woi'hs,  which  He  looks  for  everywhere  ! 

Neither  cold  nor  loarm — has  become  in  German  a  proverb, 
as  it  was  used  among  the  ancients,  to  describe  those  miserably 
negative,  characterless  people  who  hold  a  middle  place  between 
two  parts  of  a  great  alternative.  But  the  German  translation — 
which  cannot  now  be  altered — imhappily  enfeebles  the  sense  of 
the  original,  which  gives  the  contrast  more  severely,  and  with 
more  strict  truth — cold  or  hot;  for  that  fervent  burning  in 
spirit,^  in  love,  is  meant,  the  glow  of  which  is  as  "  coals  of  fire, 
and  a  flame  of  the  Lord."  Cant.  viii.  6.  Coldness  is  not  set 
over  against  the  opposite  extreme,  "  fiery  fanaticism"  (as  has 
been  falsely  interpreted)  ;    for  the  coldness  which  is  ours  by 

1  Ebrard  otherwise  :  He  hath  also  power  to  execute  His  threats  !  But 
this  Epistle  to  Laodicea — which  is  almost  entirelya  revelation  of  themselves — 
speaks  nothing  of  threatening  and  power. 

^  Rom.  xii.  11,  in  the  correct  reading :  ^iovjig — as  here  ^tarog:  comp. 
Acts  xviii.  25. 

N 


194  THE  EPISTLE  TO  LAODICEA. 

nature  cannot  be  absolutely  changed  into  its  opposite  by  the 
heavenly  fire.  When  now  a  sigh  of  love  bursts  from  the  mouth 
of  the  Faithful  Witness,  who  cannot  constrain  the  creature  to  sal- 
vation— Ah,  that  thou  wert  cold  or  hot! — He  speaks  the  most 
simple  truth.  Positively  raging  enmity,  vehement  opposition  to 
His  grace.  He  cannot  desire  as  something  better,  cannot  even 
relatively  or  in  any  manner  wish  for  ;  but  that  is  not  meant,  for 
Saul  was  not  merely  cold,  but  inflamed  by  another  fire,  when  he 
persecuted  the  Lord's  people.  Be  it  true  that  such  a  Saul  was 
sooner  won  by  the  Lord  than  a  respectable  neutral  Gamaliel, 
waiting  under  all  the  acts  of  God, — that  had  its  reason  not  in 
the  enmity  of  Saul  as  such,  but  in  other  principles  which  do  not 
involve  the  question  of  "  hot,  or  cold."  The  words  have  their 
truth  in  this,  that  they  who  have  never  been  touched  by  the 
power  and  love  of  God,  and  are  still  in  their  first  natural  con- 
dition, are  in  a  state  less  dangerous,  and  may  more  easily  be 
brought  to  the  experience  of  the  truth,  than  those  who  have 
fallen  away  from  experienced  grace  into  a  dying  and  dead  indif- 
ference. For,  as  Lisco  preaches,  "  while  in  natural  things 
transition  to  heat  is  easier  in  a  state  of  lukewarmness  than  in  a 
state  of  coldness,  it  is  not  so  in  spiritual  things,  where  the 
opposite  always  holds  good;"  but  he  improperly  reckons  decided 
enmity  as  a  state  of  coldness.  Our  readers  well  understand, 
without  much  expounding,  the  Lord's  ■word,  which  says  funda- 
mentally the  same  thmg  concerning  His  kingdom  which  we  are 
in  the  habit  of  saying  concerning  our  own  human  affairs  :  we 
prefer  decided  and  honest  reality  to  a  wavering,  indifferent, 
negative  medium.  The  word,  John  ix.  41,  to  the  Pharisees — 
If  ye  were  blind — is  something  similar,  although  in  a  somewhat 
different  relation.  We  can  now  observe  whither  Laodicea's 
prophetical  interpretation  points  :  it  is  the  great  residuum  of 
dead  Christianity,  gathered  together  at  the  last  time,  which  has 
not  yet  passed  over  into  the  camp  of  the  anti-Christendom,  en- 
kindled from  below,  only  not  yet  having  become  released  from 
all  connection  with  Christ ;  it  is  the  common  secular  Christianity 
which,  in  its  melancholy  apathy  and  self-satisfied  blindness,  goes 
on  its  respectable,  easy  way : — the  wretched  caricature  of  the 
fervent  love  of  the  Philadelphian  union,  though  in  some  respects 
hard  to  be  distinguished  before  the  final  tests  are  applied  with 
all  their  severity.     It  is  a  lifeless  and  impotent  combination  of 


REV.  III.  14-22.  195 

all  the  world  under  the  name  of  Christ,  with  some  slight  re- 
mains of  real  connection  with  Him. 

The  judgment  upon  this  lukewarmness  is  expressed,  the 
figiu'e  of  lukewarm  water  being  continued,  in  a  tone  as  it  were 
of  mockery ;  yet  there  is  some  degree  of  encouragement  even 
in  the  first  sharp  word.  Because  thou  art  lukewarm — is  more 
rigorous  than  the  original :  there,  it  is — But  SO  thou  art, 
being  thou  art ;  in  which  the  because  seems  to  pass  over  into-^ — 
If  thou  so  reraainest !  Being  such,  thou  art  an  offence  to  be 
spued  out !  In  Lev.  xviii.  28,  xx.  22,  the  land  of  Canaan  is 
spoken  of  as  spueing  out  her  inhabitants  on  account  of  their 
abominations,  as  she  had  done  the  Canaanites ;  but  this  seem- 
ingly more  rigorous  phrase  does  not  reach  the  severity  of  our 
Lord's  word — Spue  thee  out  of  My  mouth!  For  He,  out  of 
whose  lips  cometh  the  decision  of  our  salvation  or  perdition, 
takes  us  into  His  lips  first  when  He  prays  for  us  that  our  term 
of  grace  may  be  lengthened  out,  and  then  when  He  calls  upon 
us  to  be  saved,  and  finally  when  He  acknowledges  His  own 
before  the  Father.  This  last  applies  here  pre-eminently,  as  in 
ver.  5  such  confession  of  them  was  spoken  of.  Thus,  if  Lao- 
dicea  continue  lukewarm.  He  will  entirely  give  her  up  and  deny 
her,  and  no  more  take  her  name  upon  His  lips,  as  Ps.  xvi.  4  is 
threatened  to  the  idolaters.  In  the  original  the  expression  is 
once  more  softened  ;  for  it  is  not  simply  in  the  Future,  "  I  will 
spue  thee,"  still  less  a  decided  "  I  will  spue  thee  " — but  a  word 
which  may  be  translated,  "  It  is  impending,  I  have  in  piu-pose  " 
— by  which  the  accomplishment  of  the  threat  retains  its  un- 
decided and  conditional  character.^ 

Because  thou  sayest,  I  am  rich,  and  increased  with 

GOODS,  and  have  NEED  OF  NOTHING  ;  AND  EJ^OWEST  NOT 
THAT  THOU  ART  WRETCHED,  AND  MISERABLE,  AND  POOR,  AND 

BLIND,  AND  NAKED.  The  devout  reflection  which  we  have 
seen  here — "Thou  speakest  of  thy  riches;  the  speaking  is 
everything  with  thee,  and  nothing  else ;  that  is  thy  Christianity 
and  piety  " — is  beside  the  meaning.  Speaking  is  here,  accord- 
ing to  the  Old  Testament  phraseology,  equivalent  to  thinldng, 
speaking  inwardly  to  self.     Thus  it  is — Thou  thinkest,  ima- 

'  Bengel  in  the  Gnomon  :  "  The  expression  is  gentler  than  if  it  had  been 
if^itru  <ji.  Mi'h.'Ku  makes  it  not  categorical,  but  modal."  Vulg.,  also,  though 
wrongly,  Incipiain  te  evomere. 


196  THE  EPISTLE  TO  LAODICEA. 

ginest  that  thou  art  rich  in  eveiy  supply,  and  knowest  it  not 
to  be  otherwise.  It  is  ^^Tong,  again,  to  expound  this  glorying 
of  the  possession  of  external  riches  and  fortunate  outward  cir- 
cumstances, and  the  being  satisfied  with  earthly  things.  So 
Lisco  preaches  that  "  the  Laodicean  Christian  draws  a  wrong 
conclusion ;  flattering  himself  on  account  of  his  externally 
favourable  condition,  that  he  has  the  approbation  of  God."  Nor 
does  it  refer  to  the  imagination  that  it  was  inwardly  as  well 
with  them,  as  their  outward  condition  was  fortunate  and  envi- 
able. For  the  Lord  never  speaks  generally  of  external  circum- 
stances in  these  Epistles,  having  begun  with — I  know  thy 
works !  The  words  refer  directly  to  their  internal  condition, 
else  the  exact  opposition  would  not  be  preserved  in  what 
follows.  Indeed,  Laodicea's  blind,  satiated  self-glorying,  the 
beginnings  of  which  were  here,  is  to  be  found  united  with 
glorying  in  industry,  civilisation,  science,  national  progress,  and 
what  else ;  yet  it  is  not  so  as  if  the  rebuking  Lord  could  mean 
only  this,  as  Meyer  thinks :  "  Thou,  sectdar  Laodicea,  sayest 
that  thou  art  already  rich  by  nature^  through  reason,  genius, 
and  temper  of  mind,  through  the  Divine  in  man."  For,  thus  to 
speak  would  be  to  give  up  all  sense  of  needing  Christ,  to 
renounce  Him  altogether,  and  to  be  no  longer  even  lukewarm. 
A  mass  so  corrupted  in  unbelief  would  as  such  receive  no  pas- 
toral Epistle,  it  would  be  no  longer  a  chm'ch.  On  the  other 
hand,  those  who  would  still  be  Christians,  who  think  (however 
much  they  err)  that  they  have  Christ  fully  and  sufficiently, 
because  they  certainly  have  something  good  remaining  in  them 
(which  they  regard  as  all  good) — these  are  the  people  of 
Laodicea.  This  something  good  remaining  may  take  the  most 
specious  form  in  its  exhibition — familiarity  with  His  word,  and 
seemingly  spiritual  talking  about  it,  and  co-operation  in  Pliila- 
delphian  works ;  all  being  done,  however,  without  power  and 
life,  on  the  ground  of  self-pleasing  lukewarmness  and  empti- 
ness. The  threefold  expression  of  the  vain-glorying  ^  is  arti- 
ficially expounded  by  Bengel :  I  have  gold ;  have  become  rich 
in  garments ;  and  have  need  of  no  medicine  or  salve  for  my 
well-being !  In  any  case,  this  specific  reference  to  the  several 
counsels  which  follow  must  be  spiritually  interpreted;  but 
Laodicea  did  not  as  yet  know  enough  to  be  able  thus  to  speak 
concerning  her  possessions — I  am  wanting  neither  in  this  nor 


REV.  III.  14-22.  197 

in  that  of  the  Divine  gift  and  help !  The  Lord  must  first  an- 
nihilate her  general  and  indefinite  boast,  and  reveal  further — 
Behold  this,  and  further  thai,  thou  hast  not,  or  no  longer  hast ! 
Thus  the  threefold  prating  goes  on  like  prating  generally,  or  mere 
tautology,  with  expressions  growing  more  and  more  strong :  I  am 
now  rich — I  have  made  myself  rich,  taken  good  care  of  myself — 
finally,  obviating  all  warning  of  need,  I  want  nothing  more  ! 
Compare  in  the  New  Testament  the  apostolical  irony  addressed 
to  the  satisfied  Corinthians  (1  Cor.  iv.  8),  and  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment (Hos.  xii.  9)  the  still  more  similar  boast  of  Ephraim — "I 
am  become  rich,  I  have  found  me  out  substance:  in  all  my 
labours  they  shall  find  none  iniquity  in  me  that  were  sin."  ^ 
This  last  is  the  same  which  the  third  clause  in  our  passage  ex- 
presses— I  need  no  reproof  or  warning,  that  anything  is  wrong 
in  me. 

But  the  Lord  bemns  at  once  with  awful  rebuke  :  Thou  who 
thus  speakest  canst  thus  speak  only  because  thou  knowest  not 
what  1  know  of  thee,  thy  misery  in  uttermost  poverty  and 
blindness  !  This  self-deception  clings  to,  or  roots  itself  in,  the 
fact,  that  Laodicea  was  not  altogether  cold.  But  it  does  not 
mean,  as  we  have  said,  "not  hostile,  only  a  negative  Christianity." 
There  is  something  positive  in  the  lukewarmness ;  and  in  this 
consisted  their  wretchedness  and  misery,  that  that  minimum  of 
good  left  was  regarded  by  them,  in  their  blind  perverseness,  as 
amply  sufficient,  and  thus  tm-ned  to  their  hurt  even  more  than 
coldness  itself.  Our  translation  cannot  express  the  peculiar 
force  of  the  original : — That  even  thou  art  the  wretched  and  the 
miserable,  that  is,  before  all  others  who  make  no  such  boast ;  thy 
very  boasting  makes  thee  the  worst  among  all  the  Seven  whom 
I  must  rebuke  and  punish !  Wretched  or  unhappy  in  them- 
selves, as  near  to  judgment ;  therefore  miserable  or  pitiable,  to 
be  commiserated  and  mourned  over.  These  two  come  first 
with  the  strongest  emphasis  ;  then  follows  a  threefold  evolution 
of  the  pitiable  wretchedness — the  preparation  for  the  counsel 
that  follows,  though  not   in  the  same  order.     Poor  in  true, 

^  The  Lord  seems  evidently  to  refer  to  this  passage ;  for  the  second  clause, 

"h  -j^s  ^rss>2  (I  have  found  my  substance)  quite  corresponds  to  the  titJ^ov- 
rriKci,  which  is  the  very  word  used  by  the  Sept.,  but  in  the  wrong  place  in 
its  translation.  Everywhere  throughout  the  New  Testament — where  they 
say  the  Septuagint  is  alone  used — we  find  passages  like  this  which  go  back 
to  the  original. 


198  THE  EPISTLE  TO  LAODICEA. 

gold-precious  riches — hlind  in  the  self-deception,  not  knowing 
their  own  poverty — naked,  without  shame  and  consciousness 
thereof ! 

And  now  we  ask,  whether  such  a  Laodicea  can  be  imagined 
as  existing  again  at  the  end  of  the  thousand  years'  kingdom  of 
peace  !^  Indeed,  in  this  kingdom  itself  there  will  not  be  pos- 
sible any  such  manner  of  lukewarmness,  if  our  notion  is  not 
"  enthusiastically  extravagant ;"  the  nations  deceived  by  Satan, 
under  Gog  and  Magog,  are,  according  to  Rev.  xx.  8,  Ezek. 
xxxviii.  39,  to  be  sought  in  the  external  borders  of  that  king- 
dom. The  Epistles  do  not  stretch  forward  to  this  final  stage  of 
all.  But  there  will  be,  under  and  with  the  awii-Christendom 
which  will  be  developed,  before  the  entering  in  of  the  kingdom, 
a  5'Masz-Christendom  to  be  found ;  and  that  is  here  described. 
Laodicea,  in  earlier  times  a  rich  commercial  place,  had  changed 
its  first  name  Diospolis  (the  city  of  Jupiter,  or  God)  into  the 
opposite,  when  the  Syrian  king  Antiochus  Theos  (that  is,  God) 
named  it  after  his  wife  Laodice.  This  name  does  not  lead,  as 
has  been  said  in  despite  of  the  derivation,  to  "  the  time  when 
God  will  judge  the  peoples  (or  His  people)"  — none  of  these 
churches  is  prophetically  designated  with  reference  to  time. 
But  a  condition  and  a  constitution  is  intimated,  in  which  the 
people  judges  and  rules,  the  multitude  has  the  government  and 
authority.  Whether  this  points  formally  to  a  "  democratically 
organised"  church  establishment  in  states  similarly  democra- 
tical,  cannot  be  determined  ;  this  may  be  included,  with  refer- 
ence to  its  final  form.  In  general,  Meyer's  remark  is  correct — 
"Periods  of  revolutions  in  Church  and  State;" — the  meaning 
expresses  authority  from  below  upwards,  and  the  rule  of  arms, 
which  is  in  fact  the  most  appropriate  ground  and  scene  of  rich, 
satisfied,  lukewarm  quasi-Christianity. 

I  COUNSEL  THEE  TO  BUY  OF  Me  GOLD  TRIED  IN  THE 
FIRE,  THAT  THOU  MAYEST  BE  RICH  ;  AND  AVHITE  RAIMENT, 
THAT  THOU  MAYEST  BE  CLOTHED,  AND  THAT  THE  SHAME  OF 
THY  NAKEDNESS  DO  NOT  APPEAR  ;  AND  EYE-SALVE  TO  ANOINT 

THINE  EYES,  THAT  THOU  MAYEST  SEE.  There  is  counsel  and 
help  even  for  Laodicea,  if  in  the  last  hour  Laodicea  will  receive 
counsel  unto  repentance  and  conversion.     But  how  many  will 

^  As  Richter's  Hausbibel  says,  with  vehement  consistency  in  au  erroneoxis 
prophetic  system. 


EEV.  Til.  U-22.  199 

Le  willing  to  receive  it,  the  alone-helping  counsel  of  the  true 
Witness  and  faithful  Shepherd "?  In  His  last  pastoral  Epistle 
He  no  lono-er  commands  those  who  are  almost  estranged  from 
His  voice ;  He  gives  only  good  counsel,  in  which,  on  the  one 
hand,  we  cannot  fail  to  perceive  something  ironical — If  thou 
wilt  yet  hear  Me  ;^  while,  on  the  other,  the  words  are  the  faith- 
ful, earnest  purpose  of  the  love  of  this  great  Counsellor.  It 
sounds  as  another  deep  sigh — Oh  that  thou  wouldst  yet  hear 
Me !  And  the  series  which  follows  is  in  harmony,  as  with 
the  irony,  so  with  the  convincingness  of  the  loving  reproof  :  it 
first  offers  the  needed  riches,  then  the  needed  covering,  and 
finally  the  knowledge  of  their  need ;  so  that  the  good  counsel 
must,  in  fact,  be  received  in  the  inverse  order.  "  Art  thou  poor, 
I  can  help  thee  out  of  thy  poverty ;  thy  nakedness  I  can  and 
will  cover,  then  wilt  thou  attain  thy  riches  ;  but  before  all  it  is 
necessary  that  thou  shouldst  see  thy  poverty  and  nakedness, 
that  thou  mayest  look  for  and  stretch  out  thy  hands  to  receiv-e 
My  help."  Hence  we  observe  that  the  gold,  in  its  connection 
with  the  garments  of  righteousness,  of  a  holy  life,  must  not  be 
too  specifically  interpreted  oi  faith  (1  Pet.  i.  7) — nor  of  wisdom, 
as  coming  from  the  word  and  revelation  of  God  (Prov.  viii. 
10-18  ;  Job  xxviii.  15-19  ;  Ps.  xii.  7),  which  coincides  rather 
with  the  seeing  eyes — but  generally,  embracing  in  one  all  that 
belongs  to  it,  of  the  genuine  riches  which  will  stand  the  test  of 
the  fire  of  judgment  (literally — coming  confirmed  out  of  the 
fire).*^  But  how  can  man  bui/  gold,  which  buys  all  else  ?  And 
what  price  must  the  poor  give  for  it  1  Marvellous  buying  in- 
deed it  is,  mthout  gold  and  without  price,  as  Is.  Iv.  1  (where 
too,  in  ver.  4  the  faithful  \Vif7iess  is  set  before  us)  speaks  of  it , 
yet  it  is  a  buying  at  the  cost  of  all  imagined  riches,  by  the 
offering  up  of  our  entire  poverty,  and  all  the  pride  that  clings 
to  it !  (Prov,  iv.  7,  in  the  original,  "  at  the  cost  of  all  thy 
having.")     Fireproof^  gold  and  possessions  buy  of  Me,  the  Lord 

^  Even  Ebrard  discerns  a  "  wonderful  toucli  of  sacred  irony" — not  like 
many  who  arbitrarily  deny  the  possibility  of  irony  in  the  words  of  Jesus 
Christ. 

2  As  we  think,  almost  with  allusion  to  Ps.  Ixxii.  15,  where,  rightly  in- 
terpreted, the  Great  King,  who  liveth  ever,  wiU  give  to  the  poor  genuine 
gold  :  comp.  Job  xxii.  25. 

^  UiTvpu/iiii/ov,  as  in  Zeeh.  xiii.  9,  Sept. 


200  THE  EPISTLE  TO  LAODICEA. 

says  with  emphasis ;  not  false  treasure  from  others,  from  de- 
ceitful traders  and  seducers.  The  way  to  obtain  it  is  by  the 
putting  on  of  the  garments  which  hide  the  shame  of  our  naked- 
ness (Ezek.  xvi.  22  ;  Gen.  iii.  7),  garments  which  the  Lord 
alone  can  and  will  give,  and  which  are  at  the  same  time  white 
and  glorious.  But  before  all  there  must  be  the  true  opening  of 
the  eyes,  self-knowledge,  which  leads  to  the  know^ledge  of  God 
(Eph.  i.  18).  Probably  not  without  some  allusion  to  the  his- 
tory of  the  blind  man,  John  ix.,  does  the  Lord  speak  here  from 
heaven.^ 

As  MANY  AS  I  LOVE,  I  REBUKE  AJNB  CHASTEN  :  BE  ZEAL- 
OUS, THEREFORE,  AND  REPENT.  Here  the  true  and  faithful 
Witness  utters  a  principle  which,  throughout  the  whole  of  Scrip- 
ture, has  been  declared  to  be  fundamental  in  the  dealings  of 
God  with  men.  The  "  reproof"  which  convinces  by  word,  and 
reclaims  from  error  (as  the  Holy  Spirit  reproves  the  Avorld,  and 
Jesus  has  here  reproved  the  Laodiceans),  is  included  certainly 
in  the  former  of  these  two  words ;  but  this  word  itself,  as  con- 
nected with  the  second,  means  also  actual  judgments,  punish- 
ments designed  by  grace  for  good,  wholesome  disciplinary 
chastisement.  This  is  the  fundamental  meanino;  of  the  old 
saying,  which  is  found  in  Job  v.  17,  18  (not  meant  merely 
as  in  Ps.  xciv.  12)  ;  and  still  more  plainly  reproduced  in  the 
New  Testament,  Heb.  xii.  5,  6,  from  Prov.  iii.  11,  12  (comp. 
Prov.  xiii.  24;  Ecclus.  xxx.  1).  Ebrard  explains  that  "judi- 
cial inflictions  are  not  here  threatened  to  the  Laodiceans, 
the  fear  of  which  might  urge  them  to  repentance;  but  that 
the  past  rebukes  and  threatenings  are,  as  it  were,  affectingly 
apologised  for,  as  having  proceeded  from  love."  I  confess 
that  this  is  to  me  too  mild  and  affecting.  Can  we  suppose 
that  for  Laodicea  alone  there  was  such  a  gentle  apology 
reserved — as  it  were,  almost  retracting  the  threatening — in  a 
manner  so  different  from  that  of  all  the  other  Epistles  ?  In 
that  case,  Laodicea — which  heard  at  the  outset  the  piercing 
denunciation,  I  will  spue  thee  of  My  mouth — would  receive 
no  further  threatening  (which  Ephesus,  Pergamos,  Thyatira, 
Sardis   received,   however),  but   only  a  deprecatory   apology. 

'  He  uses  a  peculiar  medical  word  for  eye-salve.  Ko'K'Kovpiov  or  x.o'Khv- 
ototi,  like  Ko'K'hvpig,  of  uncertain  origin  ;  prepared,  according  to  a  passage  of 
Galen,  from  a  Plirygian  stone. 


EEV.  III.  14-22.  201 

Was  Laodicea  to  be  brought  back  to  rectitude  by  rebuking 
words  alone ;  and  by  such  as,  commencing  with — Thou  art 
nauseous  to  ^le  !  end  with — These  things  I  say  because  I  love 
thee?  We  think  that  the  whole  passage,  Heb.  xii.  7-11,  suffi 
ciently  determines  the  meaning  of  the  chastisement,  of  wliich 
the  saying  of  Solomon,  quoted  here  as  there,  speaks.^  To 
Laodicea,  therefore,  the  Lord  would  say  :  "  I  must  and  will 
strengthen  My  rebuldng  word,  in  order  that  it  may  convict  and 
recover  thee,  with  strokes  and  sharp  discipline  ;  for  thus  do  /deal 
(which  is  prominent  in  the  original) — as  ruling  in  the  place  of 
the  paternal  God — with  all  whom  I  love,^  according  to  that 
ancient  and  true  word."  The  word  used  to  denote  this  love 
is  the  more  general  one  ;  less,  here  at  first,  than  the  intenser 
love  of  acknowledgment  and  complacency.^  Thus,  this  con- 
clusion of  the  last  pastoral  Epistle,  which  is  the  severest  in  its 
commencement,  gives  a  solution,  aj^plicable  to  all  of  them,  of 
the  gracious  design  of  all  the  threatenings  denounced ;  but,  at 
the  same  time,  holds  out  the  doom  of  eternal  condemnation — If 
thou  repent  not!  For  ver.  19  is  not  merely  connected  with  the 
rebukes  and  counsel  which  precedes ;  but — and  this  must  not 
be  overlooked ! — still  more  closely  with  what  follows:  I  stand 
before  the  door,  as  Judge  also,  as  we  shall  see.  The  second 
clause  unites  itself  with  the  first  by  txie  intervening  thought — 
"  Thus,  by  rebukes,  pvmishments,  chastisements,  wholesome  and 
merciful  pvmishment,  I  call  to  thee  to  be  zealous  and  repent !" 
Luther's  "  fleissig "  is  not  enough :  the  Greek  word  is  more 
than  diligent;  it  refers  to  the  bm'ning  zeal  with  which  repent- 


1  Although  in  both  cases  there  is  a  change  in  the  word.  The  Epistle  to 
the  Hebrews  takes  the  word  vxthvet  from  Proy.  iii.  12  (not  the  wrong 
reading,  Cod.  B.  iT^eyx-'}^  because  it  designs  to  bring  out  specifically  the 
idea  of  the  fatherly  '^xileiu  ;  the  /^xariyol,  connected  with  it,  speaks  plainly 
enough  of  the  rod  so  frequent  in  Solomon's  writings.  The  Lord,  speaking 
to  Laodicea,  appropriating  the  saying  to  HimseK  in  the  first  person,  says, 
iy'.iyx^  x«(  Tirotihi/u — wherein  there  is  apparently  nothing  said  of  stripes, 
and  yet  He  certainly  means  the  same  chastising  and  disciplinary  punish- 
ments which  save,  by  wholesome  punishment  here,  from  eternal  condemna- 
tion hereafter,  1  Cor.  xi.  32. 

2  Again  strengthened  by  oVoj/j  sai/  instead  of  ov  yup  in  Solomon. 

3  Solomon  has  dyx'^ci — instead  of  that  it  is  here  (piMl.  Compare,  on 
these  synonyms,  the  "  Words  of  Jesus,"  John  xx.  15-17. 


202  THE  EPISTLE  TO  LAODICEA. 

ance  must  be  set  upon,  and  may  be  translated — Be  hot,  tliou 
lukeivarm  one!^ 

Behold,  I  stand  at  the  door  and  knock  :  if  any  man 

HEAR  My  voice,  and  open  the  door,  I  WILL  COME  IN  TO 

him,  and  will  sup  with  him,  and  HE  WITH  Me.  Strictly 
translated  it  is — I  have  stood,  have  been  ah'eady  long  standing. 
Certainly,  the  first  thought  which  rises  out  of  this  word  is  that 
of  the  announcement  of  the  Judge,  who  is  ever  drawing  nearer, 
and  who  as  graciously  as  solemnly  declares  His  coming :  we 
have  seen  that  this  judgment  draws  nearer  and  nearer  as  the 
E]3istles  proceed.^  Thus  announcing  Himself,  He  stood  indeed 
from  the  beginning  at  the  door;  but  that  He  now  so  speaks  of 
it,  as  He  had  not  yet  before  spoken, — even  that  is  His  last  and 
most  direct  knocking.  While  in  Laodicea  "  the  people  think 
they  are  sitting  in  judgment,  without  marking  that  they  stand  be- 
fore the  awful  judgment-seat"^ — He  announces  Himself  most 
faithfully  as  a  Judge  and  Saviour,  either  as  each  will  receive 
Him.  Not  merely  distributively — "as  a  Judge  to  some,  as  a 
Saviour  to  others""* — but  in  both  characters  to  every  man. 
There  seems  to  us  to  be  a  plain  echo  of  the  words  of  our  Lord, 
Luke  xii.  36-40,  when  this  great  alternative  is  exhibited  to  the 
servants.  What,  then,  is  the  knocking  ?  It  is,  as  we  have  said, 
the  nearest  announcement  at  last  of  His  nearness,  with  refer- 
ence to  all  the  announcements  which  had  already  preceded. 
Gossner  disturbs  the  sense  by  his  exposition — "And  if  thou 
hearest  not  the  knocking,  I  will  speak  to  thee ;"  for  the  voice, 
mentioned  at  the  same  time,  which  should  be  heard,  is  this 
knocking  itself ;  although,  thus  understood,  there  is  an  abun- 
dant fulness  of  meaning  wrapped  up  in  this  comprehensive 
kernel-word.  We  shall  not  do  justice  to  its  exposition,  if  we 
wilfully  neglect  the  manifold  application  which  the  Spirit  pro- 
A'ided  for  in  this  saying.  All  His  chastising  visitations  were 
knockings  with  His  voice ;  and  He  will  loudly  and  urgently 
call  Laodicea,  while  still  chastising.  Nevertheless,  we  must 
distinguish  from  this  the  proper  voice  of  the  inmost  calling  and 

'   Z'JiXuiTov  (Laclim.  ^rj'KiVi) — for  i^-ziXog,  fervor,  comes  from  ^iu. 

^  Bengel :  "  As  if  a  good  friend  should  let  me  know,  I  am  in  the  vil- 
lage— before  the  couvtyard-door — at  the  house-door — at  the  hall-door — 
on  the  steps — at  the  chamber-door." 

3  Zeller,  Monatsblatt,  1848,  Nr.  9.  *  Zeller,  Idem. 


REV.  III.  14-22.  203 

exhortation  ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  all  may  be  considered  as 
one  voice  tojjether.  Let  it  be  observed  that  He,  who  hath  the 
Jceys,  stands  loithout  on  account  of  human  freedom  ;  and  must 
seek  entrance  into  His  own  possession  !  Alas,  He  would  fain 
enter  to  the  supper,  and  not  come  to  the  judgment !  When 
Pilate  asked  the  question.  What  is  truth?  the  Amen  Himself 
stood  before  the  door  of  his  heart.  All  His  testimonies,  all  His 
threatenings  and  chastisements,  are  accompanied  by  the  inward 
voice  of  the  faithful  Witness,  saying  in  His  love — Behold,  it  is 
I,  and  My  heart  is  full  of  love ;  open  then  to  Me  !  But,  only 
few  have  ever  heard  the  voice  as  it  would  be  heard — very  few 
in  Laodicea.  This  is  found  in  the  turn  of  expression — If  any 
3IAN,  in  the  same  significant  meaning  as  John  xiv.  23  (the  ori- 
ginal, If  any  man  loveth  Me)  ;  and  thus  the  distinction  is  made 
between  believers  and  the  world,  comp.  John  viii.  51.  To  the 
rigid  hearing  belongs,  and  from  it  follows,  the  opening  of  the 
door,  as  obedience  meeting  the  call  and  the  knocking — Open 
unto  me !  Gossner  is  once  more  much  mistaken,  when  he  says 
— "  He  will  make  it  easier  still,  and  Himself  open  !"  O  no, 
that  He  cannot  do ;  else  why  should  He  stand  without  ?  The 
expression  of  Acts  xvi.  14,  which  has  also  its  true  sense,  is  not 
to  be  understood  as  abolishiufr  that  first  self-decision  of  men 
which  the  Lord  here  expressly  makes  the  condition  of  His 
entering. 

And  now  it  is  time,  after  having  considered  the  general 
meaning  of  this  wonderful  word,  to  look  into  the  gracious  depth 
which  the  second  part  of  it  opens  up  to  us,  below  its  judicial 
announcement.  He  that  heareth  the  graciously  correcting 
voice  of  the  Saviour-Judge,  summoning  to  repentance  ;  he  that 
voluntarily  opens  the  door  of  the  heart,  before  the  door  of 
judgment  is  broken  in — with  him  will  He  hold  the  supper! 
The  most  direct  reference  to  the  great  marriage-supper  (ch.  xix. 
7,  9)  is  interwoven  with  the  secret,  blessed  fore-festival  which 
is  appointed  and  prepared  for  His  chsciples  in  all  time  ; — in 
order  that  we  might  have  a  word  here,  which  the  Spirit  may 
preach  to  the  chiu'ches  of  every  age.  As  the  knocking  of  the 
Judge  is  combined  in  one  Avith  the  knocking  of  the  friend  of 
the  Beloved  (Cant.  v.  2) — so  the  final  feast  of  Aactory  and  joy 
is  combined  with  the  "  internal  supper,"  as  this  is  its  type,  and 
earnest  and  foretaste.     Although  the  German  ^^das  Abendmahl" 


204  THE  EPISTLE  TO  LAODICEA. 

— the  Supper— does  not  literally  correspond  to  the  original,^  yet 
the  reference  of  the  signification  to  the  Sacrament  is  perfectly 
correct,  for  the  word  is  both  here  and  ch.  xix.  taken  from  it. 
All  the  Communion-  and  Confirmation-sermons  on  this  text 
are  correct  which,  leaving  out  of  sight  the  special  prophetic 
meaning  in  it,  speak  of  the  internal  truth  of  fellowship  between 
those  who  open  the  door  and  their  Lord.  For,  in  opposition  to 
the  external  sacrament,  specifically  desecrated  in  Laodicea  by 
the  forgetfulness  of  this  truth,  the  Lord  speaks  of  its  internal 
reality  here.  How  impressively  this  speaks  against  the  Lutheran 
exaggeration  of  an  unthinking  reception  on  the  part  of  unbe- 
lievers, we  have  elsewhere  expressly  shown.^  We  may  gather, 
even  from  this  text,  what  is  true  even  of  the  mere  external 
sacrament,  as  celebrated  in  fallen  Christendom — that  there  is 
for  all  an  earnest,  repeated,  and  affectionate  knocking  at  the 
door  of  the  heart ;  though  He  enters  only  to  those  who  open  to 
Him. 

"  I  will  come  in  to  him,"  He  says,  "  and  hold  the  supper 
with  him,  and  he  toith  il/e."  Entirely  in  harmony  with  the  dis- 
courses of  the  Lord  in  St  John ;  comp.  John  xiv.  20,  xv.  4, 
vi.  66.  Only  when  a  man  opens  to  Him,  does  He  enter  in ; 
again,  only  when  He  keeps  the  supper  with  us,  can  we  keep  it 
with  Him ;  that  is,  only  when  He  spreads  the  table,  and  gives 
Himself  to  our  participation,  do  we  eat.  Not  as  in  Zinzendorf's 
too  confident  paraphrase,  which  loses  the  true  meaning, — 
"  Then  will  toe  feast  together  !  "  That,  to  speak  boldly,  the 
Lord  Himself  feasts,  in  the  satisfaction  of  the  desire  of  His 
love,  when  He  can  impart  Himself  to  us,  is  a  sacred  truth 
which  cannot  well  be  introduced  into  this  passage.^  He  keeps 
the  feast  with  us  as  the  Host;  we  with  Him  as  the  guests. 
Finally,  we  may  quote  the  striking  word  of  Rieger — "What  a 
contrast !  On  the  one  hand,  he  who  rejects  the  Lord  being  an 
object  of  such  loathing  as  to  be  threatened  with  being  spued 
out  of  His  mouth ;  and  He  who  hears  the  voice  of  the  Lord 
being  made  capable  of  being  His  companion  at  His  table  ! " 

To  Him  that  overcometh  will  I  grant  to  sit  avith 

^  Which  uses  a  verb — I  'will  sup^  'hnwiiuu. 

2  u  ■\^''ords  of  the  Lord  Jesus,"  on  John  vi.  53. 

3  Thus  liiTTv/iau  here,  because  required  by  the  wonderful  subject; — an 
unusual  expression  instead  of  "hu^vov  Tc-oiiiau. 


REV.  III.  14-22.  205 

^1e  in  My  throne,  even  as  I  also  overcame,  and  am  set 
DOWN  WITH  Mr  Father  in  His  throne.  The  words  now 
reach  their  highest  point;  so  that  the  severe  rebuke  may  be 
superabundantly  counterpoised  by  the  most  attractive  promise. 
"To  sit  with  Me" — thus  the  words  connect  themselves  with 
what  precedes — "not  merely  at  My  table,  but  on  My  throne." 
"  The  crowns  become  loftier  and  more  beautiful  as  the  Epistles 
proceed ;  this  is  the  highest  and  grandest  of  all "  (Herder). 
To  the  first  church  Paradise  was  shown,  as  the  Lord  Himself 
after  the  victory  of  His  cross  entered  into  it ;  to  the  last  church 
the  view  is  opened  up  even  to  the  throne  on  which  He  finally, 
as  it  is  said,  seated  Himself.  This  is  more  than  the  twelve 
thrones  of  the  Apostles,  Matt.  xix.  28.  This  is  the  sitting  to- 
gether with  Him  upon  His  throne — for  eve?y  one  that  over- 
cometh !  He  overcame; — this  we  find  echoed  so  early  as  ch. 
v.  5,  and  it  reminds  the  reader  of  Scripture  of  Heb.  xii.  2. 
The  conflict  of  those  who  overcame  as  His  followers  is  severest 
in  the  last  time ;  therefore  the  highest  crown  of  victory  is  ex- 
pressly exhibited  to  all  in  Laodicea  who  should  rouse  themselves 
from  their  lukewarmness — though  it  applies,  in  common  with 
them,  to  all  who  overcome.  That  this  sitting  with  Him  upon 
the  throne — according  to  the  relative  meaning  of  the  expres- 
sion, as  already  shown — does  not  exclude  the  worshipping 
service  of  the  perfected  servants  he/ore  the  throne  of  God  and 
the  Lamb  (ch.  xxi.  3),  is  obvious  ;  but  there  remains,  neverthe- 
less, that  reigning  with  Him  of  which  St  Paul  speaks,  2  Tim. 
ii.  12,  and  that  participation  in  His  glory  of  which  the  Lord 
Himself  speaks,  John  xvii.  22,  24.  The  promise  of  this  royal 
dominion  and  glory  appertains  to  the  sitting  at  His  table,  of 
which  He  had  already  spoken,  just  as  in  Luke  xxii.  29  the 
appointment  of  the  kingdom  is  connected  with  the  institution 
of  the  sacrament. 

He  that  hath  an  ear,  let  him  hear  what  the  Spirit 
SAITH  unto  the  churches.  That  which  the  Spirit  saith,  the 
Lord  Himself  saith  from  the  throne,  as  His  last  directly  per- 
sonal word,  ch.  xxi.  5-8,  will  sublimely  declare.  But,  again, 
even  this  personal  speaking  of  the  Lord,  although  it  retains  its 
distinction,  is  yet  through  the  Spirit,  as  that  of  the  Lord  who 
is  the  Spirit  (2  Cor.  iii.  18).  Let  us  here  at  the  conclusion 
once  more  make  this  sevenfold  cry  which,  as  the  sum  of  all  the 


206  THE  EnSTLE  TO  LAODICEA. 

Epistles  and  of  each,  urges  us  to  remember  that  all  depends  on 
HEARING  !  On  hearing  hangs  all  faith,  all  repentance,  all  love, 
all  patience  and  hope,  all  approval  of  the  conquerors !  Who- 
soever yet  shall  incline  his  ear — though  sunk  in  Laodicean 
lukewarmness — may  yet  attain  to  the  sitting  with  Him  in  His 
throne.  Write  !  said  the  Lord,  who  appeared  to  John.  That 
which  He  dictated,  the  Spirit  of  His  mouth  now  saith ;  and  we 
hear — "Blessed  is  he  that  readeth,  and  those  that  hear  the 
words  of  the  prophecy  "  (ch.  i.  3).  That  which  is  said  applies 
to  the  churches,  to  all  generally  in  all  places  and  in  all  times,  as 
they  are  signified  by  these  Seven — to  each  in  particular  that 
which  is  its  own,  and  to  all,  all  in  common — consequently,  also, 
to  every  individual  who  hath  an  ear,  and  will  open  it.  The 
Spirit  who  writes  and  speaks  is  not  the  spirit  of  John — although 
Pie  used  the  instrumentality  of  John's  ear  and  hand — but  really 
and  truly  the  Spirit  of  prophecy  as  the  testimony  of  Jesus. 
(Ch.  xix,  10.)  This  is  approved  and  certified  to  every  opened 
ear  of  all  who  are  sincere  and  willing  to  understand  : — by  the 
sublime  utterance  which  contains  sayings  the  simple  might  of 
which  is  as  gloriously  convincing  as  the  great  "  Let  there  be 
light !  and  there  was  liffht ! "  at  the  beginning  of  the  Book  of 
God,  the  Book  of  books;  by  the  heart-disclosing,  conscience- 
j^iercing  power  of  the  exhorting  word  ;  by  its  wonderful  typical 
and  symbolical  language,  laying  hold  of  the  cntu'e  ancient 
Scripture,  glorifying  the  old  in  every  case  anew,  profoundly 
connecting  every  individual  detail  with  the  great  whole ;  by  its 
paradoxes  themselves,  which  are  an  offence  only  to  ignorance, 
and  are  interwoven  for  the  purpose  of  repelling  blind  presump- 
tion ;  finally,  by  the  remarkable  prophetic  significance  of  the 
historical  and  geographical  names  of  places,  before  provided  for 
in  the  Divine  government.  Thus  the  Seven  Epistles,  with  their 
"  He  that  hath  ears  to  hear,  let  him  hear ! "  are  placed  first,  as 
an  introduction  to  the  entire,  still  more  mysterious  Book.  And 
with  this  Book  itself — though  many  dark  places  may  remain 
unillumined — every  one  will  be  more  at  ease,  in  proportion  as 
he  understands  and  lays  to  heart  those  Epistles  which  preface  it. 


EEV.  IV.  1.  207 

XI. 

I  WILL  SHOW  THEE  ! 

(Rev.  iv.  1.) 

That  this  "  first"  voice  is  the  voice  of  the  Lord  Himself,  and 
not  of  an  angel,  we  have  already  considered,  and,  as  far  as  we 
may  understand,  established.  He  who  speaks  now  is  not  the 
ansel  who  in  ch.  i.  first  announced  the  manifestation  of  the  Son 
of  Man ;  nor  he  who  was  generally  the  instrument  of  communi- 
cating the  whole  Revelation  of  St  John,  and  of  whom  we  read 
in  the  superscription,  ch.  i.  1 : — as  it  respects  this  latter,  it  has 
even  been  very  questionable  what  it  means.  This  expression, 
which  does  not  occur  again  till  the  conclusion,  ch.  xxii.  6,  does 
not  by  any  means  designate  the  various  angels  who  come  for- 
ward in  this  book  of  visions ;  for  that  would  be  a  very  strange 
manner  of  speech.^  But  it  might  be,  as  it  were,  the  "  body- 
angel"  of  Jesus  Christ,  whom  He  specifically  tenns  ^^His  angel ;" 
Gabriel  (probably  since  the  Annunciation  the  guardian  angel 
of  the  holy  child)  most  natui'ally  having  the  prerogative  of  this  re- 
lation. Even  this  supposition,  which  we  do  not  absolutely  reject, 
admits  the  further  question,  whether  all,  even  the  personal  mani- 
festation, ch.  i.  13,  must  be  regarded  as  presented  through  this 
angel,  which  to  us  is  by  no  means  clear ;  or,  v^hether  the  busi- 
ness of  the  angel  commences  here  in  ch.  iv.,  where  the  shoioing 
begins  (comp.  ch.  xxii.  6).  Of  the  two  we  should  prefer  the 
latter  ;  which,  however,  must  be  consistent  with  ch.  iv.  1,  where 
the  Lord  says — I  will  show  thee,  through  Mine  angel.  But 
there  remains  another  solution,  which,  with  all  becoming  diffi- 
dence in  such  a  matter,  we  should  prefer  to  any.  When  we 
read  in  Acts  xii.  15  that  the  believers  said  to  Rhoda,  who  per- 
sisted that  it  was  Peter  himself  whose  voice  she  knew.  It  is  his 
angel,  the  connection  necessarily  leads  us  to  that  meaning  of  the 
word  to  which  ISIeyer  devoted  a  separate  essay .^  The  word, 
namely,  may  signify  generally,  without  involving  the  specific 

^  Grotius :  modo  per  hunc,  modo  per  illiun  angelum  ! 

2  In  the  Bibeldeutungen  (Frankf ,  1812) — a  work  still  well  worth  reading. 


208  I  WILL  SHOW  THEE  ! 

personality  of  one  sent  as  distinct  from  the  sender,  a  sending, 
message,  intimation ;  ^  and  the  Christians  who,  after  praying  for 
Peter's  bodily  deliverance,  were  strangely  unable  to  believe  that 
it  was  he,  declare  what  Rhoda  heard  to  be  a  spiritual  manifesta- 
tion, similarly  to  Luke  xxiv.  37, — whether  Peter's  "  genius,"  so 
to  speak,  was  thought  of  as  identical  with  himself,  or,  more  simply, 
his  spirit  was  equivalent  to  his  "announcement,  or  token" — as 
the  common  people  say  concerning  a  supposed  apparition  of  the 
dead.  Suffice  that  this  gives  us  a  phrase  which  I  think  appli- 
cable here  in  the  Apocalypse:  His  appearance — "the  raying 
forth  of  His  personality,"  which  is  not  itself  another  person,  but 
yet  not  Christ  Himself  fully  and  immediately.  Thus  we  are  to 
understand  the  revelation  which  is  not  only  not  perceptible  to  our 
senses,  but  not  fully  intelligible  to  oiu'  spirit  here  below  ;  it  is, 
however,  something  much  more  intimate  than  when  the  law  was 
given  upon  Sinai  by  the  ministration  of  actual  angels  (Col.  iii. 
19).  This  "by  His  angel,"  and  "I  have  sent  Mine  angel,"  do 
not  coincide  with  the  appearance  and  speaking  of  individual 
angels  ;  it  is  the  foundation  upon  which  this  latter  rests,  the  re- 
velation itself  which  proceeds  from  the  person  of  Jesus. 

We  thought  it  necessary  to  establish  this  beforehand,  in 
order  that  it  might  convey  our  most  distinct  protest  against  the 
intei'pretation  which  would  introduce  in  ch.  iv.  1  a  personal 
angel  distinct  from  Christ.  We  must  now  carefully  consider 
the  sh«rt  utterance  of  our  Lord,  as  it  is  connected  with  what 
precedes  and.  what  follows. 

After  this  I  saw — to  be  understood  simply  and  literally  as 
meaning,  "  After  hearing  and  receiving  the  Seven  Epistles  dic- 
tated to  me,  concerning  which  it  had  been  seven  times  said. 
Write  !"  JSIany  assume  here,  and  often  betAveen  the  various 
visions,  an  interval  dividing  them ;  as  if  "  after  this"  meant 
"  after  a  certain  time,  yet  once  again."  We  see  no  reason  for 
this,  but  regard  all  as  exhibited  at  once  and  in  direct  succession; 
otherwise,  some  intimation  would  have  been  given  of  such  in- 
tervals. That  St  John,  in  order  to  write  down  the  Epistles 
at  once,  lapsed  back  in  the  interval  to  his  ordinary  consciousness, 
and  then  anew  (according  to  ver.  2)  passed  into  trance,  we  can- 
not believe,  since  the  seeing  and  hearing  of  ver.  1  supposes  hun 
to  be  still  "in  the  spirit."  It  is  not  said — And  I  wrote  these 
''  As  "X^tt  in  its  first  meaning,  and  mtncias  in  Latin. 


EEV.  IV.  1.  209 

Epistles,  as  was  said  to  me,  and  afterwards  saw.  The  same 
Spirit  who  elevated  the  seer  to  see,  gave  him  also  the  power  of 
remembering  what  he  saw,  in  order  aftei'wards  to  WTite  it  down  : 
this  alone  is  appropriate  in  itself,  and  conformable  with  ch.  i.  11. 
Thus  after  tJiis — that  is,  after  the  first  manifestation  of  the  Lord 
had  A^anished  from  sight,  and  only  the  dictating  voice  through 
the  Spirit  or  in  the  Spirit  proceeded — St  John  saw  again  other 
things,  and  at  once  records  it  with  the  prophetic — Behold  a  door 
in  heaven  opened  (was  before  me,  or  shown  to  me).  Not  "  loas 
opened" — for  he  no  more  saw  the  opening  of  the  door  than  he 
saw  the  throne  set  before  his  eyes.^  Both  were  at  once  present, 
visible  before  him.  The  open  door,  according  to  appearance  in 
the  visible  heaven,  according  to  the  corresponding  reality  in 
heaven,  is  here  not  altogether  the  same  which  Stephen,  Acts 
vii.  55,  saw ;  but  it  may  answer  to  the  opening  of  heaven  to 
Ezekiel,  who  records,  ch.  i.  1 — The  heavens  were  opened,  and 
I  saw  visions  of  God.  We  may  profitably  refer  this  to  the  great 
truth,  that  through  Christ  the  heavens  were  more  and  more  fully 
opened  to  us,  from  the  words  of  John  i.  51  up  to  their  full  open- 
ing in  the  ascension.  But  this  general  interpretation  is  only  the 
foundation  for  that  specific  opening  of  the  heaven  which  is  here 
spoken  of,  for  beholding  in  the  spirit.  St  John  was  in  the  spirit, 
ch.  i.  10  ;  and  then  through  the  manifestation  of  the  Lord  was 
exalted  still  higher  in  the  spirit ;  then  again  he  is  exalted  a  step 
higher  (for  trance  and  inspiration  have  many  degrees)  by  the 
repeated  cry  of  the  first  trumpet-voice,  in  which  the  Lord  here 
speaks  to  him  :  ^ 

Come  up  hither,  and  I  avill  show  thee  things  which 
MUST  BE  HERE.VFTER !  This  brief  word  is  the  majestic  ^nd 
most  significant  introduction  to  all  that  follows.  'VVTiat  pre- 
ceded had  been  shown  to  him,  and  had  passed,  as  still  upon 
earth.  Now  he  must,  not  in  body,  but  in  spirit,  go  tip  to  the 
opened  door  of  heaven;  that  is,  be  altogether  translated  and 
exalted  to  the  contemplation  of  heavenly  things,  the  sjmbols 
of  which,  appi'ehensible  by  him  and  the  Church,  the  Lord  will 
show  him.  In  the  strength  of  this  word,  and  at  the  same  time 
in  obedience  to  it,  he  immediately  rises;  so  that  we  read  in  ver. 

^  Gr.  iKsiTO,  as  in  John  ii.  6,  xix.  29. 

2  Ch.  i.  10-13.  The  y^iyuv  (Heb.  "'-k'?.)  which  is  added  to  the  ifavvi  and 
7i«?koi/ff>i5,  marks  the  new  beginning  of  the  abrupt  manner  of  speaking. 

O 


210  I  WILL  SHOW  THEE  ! 

2,  "  And  immediately  I  was  m  the  spirit."  ^  That  is,  as  we 
have  said,  a  higher  grade ;  as,  for  example,  in  the  case  of 
Ezekiel,  ch.  xi.  1,  5.  The  Apostle  was  step  by  step  prepared 
and  purified,  by  the  laying  of  the  right  hand  upon  him  after 
the  terror  of  his  mortal  nature  unto  death,  by  the  heart-reveal- 
ing exhortations  and  sublime  promises  of  the  Epistles,  into  a 
perfect  capacity  for  beholding  all  that  follows  :  this  seems  far 
more  appropriate  than  the  assumption  of  an  interval  of  ordi- 
nary consciousness,  and  the  writing  of  the  Epistles.  From  this 
time  all  goes  on  in  one  connected  trance,  one  scene  resolving 
another,  until  the  new  Jerusalem,  the  new  heaven  and  the 
new  earth.  With  the  exception  of  one  word  from  the  throne, 
ch.  xxi.  5-8,  which,  as  it  were,  breaks  in  to  interrupt,  there  is 
no  more  personal  speaking  on  the  Lord's  part;  but  a  showing 
in  the  manner  of  symbolical  visions  down  to  the  last  And  He 
showed  me.  Ch.  xxii.  1  (compare  with  this  ch.  xvii.  3,  xxi.  10). 
But  first  St  John  sees  the  throne  of  the  Father  and  of  the  Son 
with  the  Seven  Spirits,  of  which  the  last  promise,  ch.  iii.  21,  had 
spoken :  now  without  a  veil,  corresponding  with  the  mercy-seat 
in  the  earthly  temple.  Come  up  hither — saith  He  who  dwelleth 
and  is  enthroned  in  heaven  —  who  by  His  ascending  first 
changed  the  closed  and  distant  "  there  "  of  the  children  of  men 
into  " here,^  who  in  His  humiliation  Himself  knew  not  the 
time  and  hour  of  all  those  things  which  now  He  can  and  will 
show  as  the  Lord  "  to  His  servants."  I  will,  I  shall  shoio  thee  ! 
This  word  in  this  place,  embracing  the  whole  revelation,  is  alto- 
gether appropriate  only  to  Christ  Himself.  In  due  time  par- 
ticular angels  may  show  what  was  particularly  committed  to 
them;  but  now  He  summons  His  servant  upwards  with  the 
promise.  "What  shall  be  hereafter" — this  connects  itself 
with  the  first  words  in  ch.  i.  19.  Hereafter ^  or  literally,  after 
this,  proceeds  from  the  then  present  time,  and  teaches  us  that 
the  visions  thus  referred  to,  refer  not  merely  to  far  distant 
times,  but  that  their  fulfihnent  embraces  all  time  from  the 
then  present.  It  gives  us  the  right  interpretation  of  the  pro- 
phetic formula  "  shortly,"  ch.  i.  1  and  ch.  xxii.  6.  In  those 
first  words,  ch.  i.  19,  The  things  that  are  came  first.     This  is 

^  Lacliuiaiin  without  reason  removes  f^sroi  ruvTct  from  ver.  1,  carrying 
it  on  to  ver.  2 ;  but  Tisciiendorf  does  not  follow  him,  though  he  also  reads 
Ei/Siu;  without  Kcci. 


REV,  XXI.  0-8.  211 

■wanting  here,  because  it  is  self-understood  in  "I  will  show 
thee;"  for  (according  to  the  meaning  which  we  there  esta- 
blished) the  future  has  its  foundation  in  the  present.  That 
which  shall  and  must  take  place  upon  earth,  in  the  evolution  of 
time,  proceeds  only  from  that  which,  as  a  higher  reality,  is  al- 
ready present  in  heaven,  and  can  be  shown.  Above  is  already 
fore-t}^ified  all  that  the  future  will  unfold  to  us  ;  as  the  idea  of 
the  world  and  its  history  was  present  in  God  before  the  founda- 
tion of  the  world.  So  far  as  we  are  carried  up  thither,  through 
the  revelation  and  the  showing  which  removes  the  veil  and  reveals 
the  events,  so  far  we  know  the  future  reserved  from  human  eye. 
To  ascend  into  heaven,  is  in  its  nature  to  prophesy  for  earth. 

Let  us  read  and  learn,  so  shall  we  also  see  and  hear ;  then 
will  to  us  also  the  heavens  be  opened,  and  thereby  "  all  things 
in  the  invisible  world  will  be  shown  as  present,  living,  moving 
action  —  as  far  as  it  belongs  to  the  collective  revelation  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  in  glory"  (as  Rieger  profoundly  and  truly  ex- 
presses himself).  If  we  open  the  door  of  our  hearts  to  the  Lord 
Jesus,  as  the  last  Epistle  requires,  at  the  close.  He  will  open  the 
door  of  heaven  to  each  of  us  according  to  his  capacity  and  need, 
and  accordinop  to  the  measiu'e  of  his  mft;  so  that  we  shall  in  the 
general,  if  not  with  the  specific  understanding  of  him  to  whom 
it  was  shown  in  Patmos,  behold  and  understand  the  conflict 
and  victory  of  the  kingdom  of  God  in  Chi'ist,  and  what  shall  be 
from  this  time  to  the  end.  Thus  the  Lord's  word  gives  free 
permission  to  the  desu'e  of  us  all  to  look  into  His  great  futm'ity. 


XH. 

FINAL  WORD  FROM  THE  THRONE. 

(Rev.  xxi.  5-8.) 

In  the  introduction  we  explained  generally  why  we  single 
out  this  word  as  the  immediate  saying  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
from  heaven,  in  contradistinction  from  all  else  that  St  John 
had  seen  and  heard.  Our  remarks  upon.ch.  iv.  1  have  made 
it,  we  hope,  still  plainer ;  and  now  our  final  exposition  of  the 
last  word  will  remove  any  remaining  obscurity. 

I  will  shoiu  thee  —  said  the  Lord  to  St  John ;  and  He  has 


212  FINAL  WOED  TEOM  THE  THRONE. 

shown  liim  all;  this  book  of  visions  conies  to  its  end.  The 
seer  has  seen  and  heard  in  manifold  symbols  and  voices — with 
clear  and  intelligible  words  intervening,  which  shine  as  lights 
in  the  prophetic  darkness — all  that  upon  which  the  most  gifted 
and  humble  exposition  can  do  no  more  than  speU  the  meaning 
out,  until  one  day  the  fulfilment  glorifies  the  prophecy,  and  God's 
Book  wUl  be  read  clearly  from  the  end  of  it  backwards.  There 
has  been  shown  to  the  seer  the  future  already  present  before 
God,  the  heavenly  and  the  earthly  —  the  Upper,  with  its 
mysteries  and  powers  for  the  Lower,  with  its  gratulations  of 
victory  and  plagues  of  wrath;  the  powers  out  of  the  abyss, 
the  great  conflict,  and  the  glorious  victory.  He  has  seen  the 
Throne  with  its  living  creatures  and  elders — the  Lamb  in  His 
glory — the  blessed  with  then'  palms  and  harps — the  seven  seals 
with  their  judgments  before  the  great  day  of  wrath — the  seven 
trumpets  with  their  plagues  and  woes — the  two  witnesses — the 
temple  in  heaven — the  woman  in  the  wilderness — the  might  of 
the  dragon  in  the  beast — the  angel  with  the  everlasting  Gospel 
— the  patience  of  the  saints,  and  the  smoke  of  torment — the 
last  vials  of  wrath  below,  in  apposition  with  the  song  on  the 
crystal  sea  above — the  great  whore  on  her  beast — Babylon's 
fall  and  the  marriage  of  the  Lamb — the  victory  and  binding 
of  Satan,  and  the  kingdom  of  the  first  resurrection — the  final 
insurrection  afterwards,  and  the  last  judgment  —  the  new 
Jerusalem  in  the  new  world.  All  has  hitherto  proceeded  up- 
wards in  gradation  ;  but  now  He  that  sitteth  upon  the  throne 
speaks  above  all  the  angels,  and  above  all  other  voices  that  had 
proceeded  from  Him,  a  glorious  word.  Then,  with  a  description 
more  full  and  complete  of  the  new  Jerusalem,  and  the  concluding 
sayings  of  the  Spirit,  the  whole  book  is  brought  to  a  close. 

Stephen  saio  the  Lord  upon  the  throne  ;  but  at  that  crisis 
any  word  would  have  been  inappropriate.  St  John,  at  the 
corresponding  end,  hears  the  voice  from  the  throne,  after  he  has 
seen  and  heard  much  that  was  great  and  fuU  of  the  final  glory, 
ch.  xxi.  1-4.  The  new  heaven  inclines  to  the  new  earth  ;  the 
heavenly- earthly  new  Jerusalem  is  the  bond  of  connection.-"- 
The  upper  congregation,  which  already  keeps  the  marriage- 
feast,  begins  the  government  for  the  healing  of  the  nations  who 
had  not  fallen  in  the  judgment.  Now,  more  clearly  than  to 
^  As  in  Matt.  v.  34,  35,  the  sjTiibolical  city  stands  thus  intermediately. 


REV.  XXI.  5-8.  213 

Ezekiel,  is  shown  to  him  the  city  without  a  temple,  "with  the 
name,  Here  is  the  Lord  with  His  people !  (Ezek.  xlviii.  35). 
The  blessedness  of  its  inhabitants  the  voice  to  John  could  only 
negatively  describe  :  There  is  no  more  death,  and  no  more  sor- 
row !  That  indeed  was  the  first ;  the  overcomers  have  all 
come  out  of  much  tribulation,  as  the  Lamb,  the  Captain  of 
their  salvation,  came  out  of  blood  and  death.  But  the  former 
things  are  passed  away  ;  the  last  and  the  7iew  is  come.  So  the 
seer  beholds  it ;  and  thus  does  the  Lord  speak  of  it. 

A  nd  He  that  sate  (or  sits)  upon  the  throne  said,  Behold,  I 
MAKE  ALL  THINGS  NEW  !  Here  the  "  loud  voice  from  heaven"^ 
is  followed  and  surpassed  by  a  word  from  the  Sitter  upon  the 
throne  Himself  (ch.  xx.  11) — which  we  may  justly  claim  as  a 
word  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  the  Son  of  God.  Many,  indeed,  think 
that  here  (for  the  first  and  only  time !)  God  the  Father  speaks, 
and  they  refer  to  ch.  iv.  2,  9,  10,  v.  1,  7, 13.  There,  certainly, 
to  St  John  was  shown — after  the  example  of  Daniel — the 
eternal  Father  as  personally  sitting  upon  the  throne,  to  ^'Miom 
the  incarnate  Son,  the  Lamb,  was  brought ;  but  since  even  there 
(ch.  V.  13)  all  creatures  gave  like  adoration  to  Him  that  sate  upon 
the  throne  and  to  the  Lamb,  there  can  be  no  more  a  distinction 
of  the  Father's  person  when  in  subsequent  visions  the  throne  is 
concerned.  The  perfected  assumption  of  the  Lamb  to  conjoint 
sitting  thereupon  recurs  sooh,  in  ch.  vii.  10,  11 ;  where,  down 
to  ver.  17,  the  "Lamb  in  the  midst  of  the  throne"  is  inter- 
woven with  all  worship  on  our  part,  and  with  all  the  promised 
acts  of  God  towards  us.  And  so  vre  must  understand  the 
throne  of  light  in  ch.  xx.  11,  from  which  the  judgment  goes 
forth  ;  for  the  Father  hath  committed  all  judgment  to  the  Son 
(John  V.  22,  27).  The  Lord,  even  in  His  humiliation,  had 
spoken  of  this,  Matt.  xxv. — Then  will  the  Son  of  ISIan  sit  upon 
the  throne  of  His  glory !  and  how  could  St  John  behold  any 
other  vision  than  that^  Similarly,  in  conclusion,  we  read, 
ch.  xxii.  1,  3,  of  the  throne  of  God  and  the  Lamb  ;  and  when 
the  "  seeing  of  His  face"  is  spoken  of,  we  know  full  well  that 
the  Son  is  the  Face  and  Visible  Image  of  the  Father.  And  to 
suppose  that,  in  this  intermediate  ch.  xxi.  5,  He  that  speaketh 

'  According  to  a  reading  now  accepted  ;  to  •which,  however,  we  would 
prefer  another  :  From  the  throne  ;  literally,  out  of  the  throne,  as  is  meant  in 
ch.  vi.  6,  xix.  5,  xvi.  1. 


214  FINAL  WORD  FROM  THE  THRONE. 

is  not  the  Son,  is  to  contradict  tlie  fundamental  tone  of  this 
whole  revelation.  It  is  Avithout  doubt  Pie  whom  St  John  else- 
where calls  the  eternal  Word  with  God — who  terms  Himself 
at  the  end  of  the  book,  ch.  xxii.  13,  once  more  "  the  Alpha  and 
the  Omega,"  just  as  here,  ver.  6,  from  the  throne; — so  that 
the  beginning  too,  ch.  i.  8,  must  be  understood  accordingly. 
That  for  the  rest,  when  Christ  speaks,  it  is  God  in  Christ  who 
speaks,  God  through  Christ,  is  perfectly  self -understood. 

And  how  runs  the  first  word  of  the  last  saying  from  the 
throne  ?  With  the  simplest  expression  which  human  language 
could  furnish  for  the  most  sublime  and  comprehensive  of  all 
thoughts — with  a  Behold,  which  points  to  the  seeti  new 
heaven  and  new  earth,  a  Behold  which  surpasses  all  the  many 
"  beholds"  of  this  book  and  of  the  whole  of  Scripture — I  mahe 
all  things  new  !  and  in  the  original,  in  this  expressive,  untrans- 
lateable  order  :  new — all  things — make  I !  Not  only  the 
city  which  thou  beholdest :  heaven  also,  and  earth,  all  things 
new  !  This  is  immeasvu^ably  more  than  the  early  and  distant 
prelude  in  Is.  xliii.  18,  19,  when  the  New  Testament  economy 
generally  was  comprehended  in  one  antithesis  to  the  previous 
typical  dispensation ; — although  even  there  the  end  (new 
heavens  and  new  earth,  Is.  Ixv.  17)  was  included  in  that 
glance  forward  from  the  beginning,  just  as  here  the  last  words 
from  the  throne  concerning  the  end,  looking  back,  embraced 
also  the  beginnings.^  The  new  creation  in  the  individual  rege- 
nerate, 2  Cor.  V.  17,  is  the  fundamental  beginning,  and  is  the 
slow  continuation  which  wins  the  victory  ;  for  a  human  heart  is 
harder  to  change  than  the  heavens  and  eai'th.  When  the  Avhole 
company  of  the  saved,  the  collective  "  bride"  (previously,  ver.  2), 
hath  been  made  ready  with  her  adornments,  then  is  all  this 
work  of  preparation  complete — then  will  one  mighty  word  of 
her  Husband  be  sufficient  to  make  heaven  and  earth  new. 

But  those  who  would  gather  from  this  isolated  "  all  things 
new"  the  so-called  restitution  of  all  things,  the  final  salvation  of 
all,  even  of  the  devil  and  his  angels,  the  conversion  even  of  hell 

'  Only  in  the  apocryphal  words  of  the  book  of  Wisdom,  ch.  vii.  27,  do 
we  find  an  approximation  to  this  expression  :  The  everlasting  Wisdom,  who 
can  do  all  things,  the  brightness  of  the  everlasting  light,  malccth  all  thiiujs 
neiv,  T«  vMi/rx  x-onvi'^si — but  the  idea  is  there  very  wavering,  and  indis- 
tinctly conceived. 


REV.  XXI.  5-8.  215 

into  aJieaven  of  the  gloiy  of  God — a  doctrine  contradicted  by 
the  whole  of  Scripture — nave  no  ground  here  to  rest  upon  ;  for 
very  soon,  in  ver.  8,  we  hear  the  fearfully  protesting  word  con- 
cerning the  lake  of  brimstone  and  fire,  the  second  death,  as 
actually  the  conclusion  of  all.  As  in  Eph.  i.  23  we  read  only 
"  all  in  alV^  (not  in  all  things),  that  is,  in  all  the  members  of 
the  body — and  1  Cor.  xv.  28  must  be  understood  in  the  same 
way — so  here  we  find  it  not  written,  "  all  creatures  new,"  or 
"  all  things  saved."  The  new-created  all  things  refer  not  to  the 
universe^ — as  if  nothing  would  remain  unglorified  ;  for  in  ver. 
8,  and  again  ver.  27,  and  fm-ther,  ch.  xxii.  15,  there  is  a  fearful 
without,  beyond  the  limits  of  the  new  world  and  the  city  of 
God.  There  vdW  be  no  more  death — in  the  new  Jerusalem. 
There  will  be  no  more  sea — as  sea  upon  the  new  earth.  On 
the  other  hand,  in  the  abyss  there  is  and  will  ever  be  the  second 
death.  We  might  indeed  say,  if  this  also  must  be  added  to  the 
"  all  things,"  that  in  a  certain  sense  the  lake  of  damnation  is  a 
final  and  neio  revelation  and  confirmation  of  eternal  righteous- 
ness and  judgment ;  but  we  prefer  the  undistm^bed  reference 
of  the  expression  to  the  new  revelations  of  glory. 

Hereupon,  once  more.  And  He  saith  (unto  me) — then,  again. 
And  He  said  unto  me.  Is  all  this  the  one  continuous  word  of 
the  Lord  from  the  throne,  as  many  understand  ?  If  so,  why 
the  repetition?^  We  are  convinced,  rather,  that  another  voice 
speaks  in  the  interim ;  and  only  in  ver.  6  the  Lord's  own  word 
continues.^    The  intervenino;  angel  it  is  who  once  more,  for  the 

DO  ' 

third  time,  adds,  Write!  as  this  voice  occurred  before  in  ch. 
xix.  9,  in  opposition  to  Write  not!  ch.  x.  4.  Thus,  with  a 
designed  distinction,  the  high  word  from  the  throne  is  made 
prominent ;  for  the  Amen,  who  here  sitteth  on  the  throne,  it 
would  have  been  here  unbefitting  to  declare  again  the  truth  and 
certainty  of  His  words.  The  assm*ance.  These  loords  are  faith- 
ful and  true  {Gr.,  true  and  to  be  relied  on),  recurs  in  ch. 
xxii.  6,  and  had  its  more  simple  prelude  in  ch.  xix.  9.  To  our 
feeling,  at  least,  however  appropriate  as  the  exclamation  of  the 
angel,  it  is  not  in  harmony  with  the  throne-style  of  Him  who 

^  Tlocvrx,  not  t«  TTot-vroi,  as  the  book  of  "Wisdom  incorrectly  writes. 

2  For,  to  refer  it  to  the  Trinity  is  altogether  too  far-fetched. 

3  The  xiyit  intervening  is  distinguished  from  the  repetition  of  the  first 

X,0C\   UTTiV. 


216  FINAL  WORD  FROM  THE  THRONE. 

]iere  at  once  follows  the  short  and  sublime  word  which  we  have 
heard  by  one  still  shorter  and  equally  sublime. 

It  is  done  !^  Let  us  not  frigidly  paraphrase  it,  as  exposi- 
tion— It  is  done  as  certainly  as  if  it  had  already  come  to  pass ! 
This  is  not  enough,  and  does  not  reach  the  presentation  of  the 
future  before  the  Eternal  who  here  speaks,  and  at  once  con- 
tinues— I  AM  THE  Alpha  and  the  Omega,  the  Beginning 
AND  the  End.  Once  before,  at  the  seventh  vial  of  wrath,  a 
voice  had  said,  It  is  done  !  (ch.  xvi.  17).  That  was  spoken 
of  the  fall  of  Babylon  and  the  judgment  of  God :  Concerning 
what  does  the  Lord  here  use  the  same  word?  Manifestly  con- 
cerning the  completion  of  redemption  and  salvation,  the  new 
creation  unto  glory,  as  the  third  and  gi'eatest  It  is  finished, 
which  points  back  to  the  Finished  upon  the  cross,  and  through 
that  to  the  finisliing  of  the  first  creation.  Between  the  Alpha 
and  Omega  hes  all  the  successively  evolved  and  yet  united 
alphabet  of  all  letters,  in  all  the  tongues  of  the  words  and  works 
of  God ;  that  is,  the  whole  development  of  history,  written  in 
the  sevenfold  sealed  book  of  ch.  v.  By  the  Son  was  in  the 
beginning  the  creation,  in  the  middle  the  redemption,  and  at 
the  end  will  be  the  glorification,  of  the  redeemed ;  through  Him 
and  in  Him  all  history  is  accow?j9^zsA(?t7,  for  the  solution  of  the 
mysteries  of  which  He  alone  is  the  key. 

And  now  once  more — what  a  combination! — His  all-em- 
bracing word  and  testimony  goes  back  from  that  which  is  last 
to  that  which  was  first ;  that  is,  to  the  first  beginning  of  the 
new  creation  in  every  one  who  thirsts  for  salvation.  The  I, 
twice  in  the  original  made  prominent — /  am,  /  will  give — is 
certainly  no  other  than  the  I  of  the  Son  who  thus  speaks  through- 
out this  book.  I  will  give  unto  him  that  is  athikst  of 
the  fountain  of  the  water  of  life  freely.  The  things 
which  are  here  spoken  together,  are  spoken  separately  in  ch. 
xxii.  13,  17  ;  for  this  book  abounds  in  the  repetition  of  great 
fundamental  testimonies.  In  ch.  vii.  17  we  read  of  livincr  foun- 
tains  of  life  (which  are  now  united  in  one  fountain  and  stream, 
as  in  ch.  xxii.  1); — there  following  the  prophetic  word,  Is.  xlix. 

^  We  hold  to  this  reading,  and  cannot  reconcile  ourselves  to  the  yJyoi/«j/, 
•which  probably  came  from  the  incorrect  yiyovx.  "  These  words  arc  already- 
accomplished,  as  good  as  fulfilled,"  would  be  a  most  inappropriate  continu- 
ation, on  the  part  of  our  Lord,  of  the  angel's  word. 


EEV.  xxr.  5-8.  217 

10,  yet  adding  the  interpretation  "  of  life,"  with  allusion  to  John 
iv.  14,  we  shall  avoid  any  useless  attempt  to  disturb  the  "  figure" 
(as  it  is  termed)  by  so-called  explanation.  He  to  whom,  as  athirst, 
his  thirst  itself  does  not  expound  it,  will  not  understand  it  even 
only  in  the  beginning ;  he  to  Avhom  the  fulfilment  does  not  bring 
it  at  the  end,  will  never  understand  this  giving  to  drink  with 
eternal  life,  for  here  to  understand  is  to  experience.  Thus 
much,  however,  we  may  say  for  the  exposition  of  the- connection : 
Although  the  promising  word  from  the  throne  promises  the  last, 
full  refreshment  of  those  who  have  conquered  in  the  conflict, 
it  yet  connects  this  proffered  reward  with  the  first  decisive  be- 
ginning of  thirsting,  as  an  indispensable  condition.  With  the 
thu-sting  the  giving  begins  and  goes  on  increasingly,  as  the 
thirsting  is  the  living  impulse  throughout  the  whole  conflict, 
becoming  more  and  more  internally  vehement  in  its  ardour  for 
the  crown  of  victory.  But  all,  it  must  be  carefully  observed,  is, 
though  not  withovit  our  desiring  and  receiving,  yet  the  free  gift 
of  the  Lord,  His  pure  gi'ace  without  any  merit  of  ours !  To  him 
that  is  athirst — that  looks  forward  from  the  very  beginning  to  the 
utmost  end.  He  that  overcometh — that  looks  back  from  the  end  to 
the  beginning;  which  simple  remark  of  itself  overturns  the  strange 
opinion  of  some  expositors,  that  in  the  following  ver.  7  God  the 
Father  begins  anew  to  speak  of  Christ,  the  Overcomer  for  us  all ! 

He  that  overcometh  shall  inherit  all  things  ;  and 
I  will  be  his  God,  and  he  shall  be  My  son.  Here  once 
more,  and  the  only  time  since  the  Seven  Epistles,  is  this  stimu- 
lating, attracting,  and  more  elevated  He  that  overcometh  !  (In 
the  middle  of  the  book,  ch.  xii.  11,  we  have  once  mention  of 
those  who  have  overcome.)  And  this  similar  phraseology  shows 
most  certainly  that  Christ  is  speaking  here,  although  the  promise 
afterwards  strikingly  runs — He  shall  be  My  (literally,  to  Me  a) 
son.  We  shall  see  and  understand  why  this  is  said,  here  at  the 
end  of  Eevelation,  where  the  co-enthroned  Son,  delivering  up 
all  to  the  Father  (1  Cor.  xv.  24) — giving  back  Himself  and 
His  kingdom  won,  as  it  were  His  inheritance,  absolutely  to  God 
— on  that  very  account  speaks  as  God  sitting  upon  the  throne, 
while  He  nevertheless  remains  the  Son,  the  Lamb  in  the  midst 
of  the  throne.-^     He  Himself,  who  first  overcame,  speaks  thus 

1  On  ch.  V.  6,  7,  Meyer  says,  correctly,  as  to  its  deep  meaning :  "  Here 
we  see  a  double  angel,  that  is,  manifestation  of  the  Son.     He  sitteth  upon 


218  FINAL  WORD  FROM  THE  THRONE. 

here  in  the  name  of  the  Father  (who  for  ever  speaks  only 
through  Him)  of  the  inheriting,  which  in  the  Old-Testament 
type  was  used  mostly  of  the  people  as  a  whole,  though  some- 
times, in  anticipation  of  its  final  fulfilment,  it  was  used  (e.  <j. 
Ps.  xxxvii.  9,  11,  comp.  Matt.  v.  5),  as  here,  of  the  individuals. 
The  translation — He  shall  inherit  all  things — is  not  wrong, 
though  springing  from  an  incorrect  reading.  The  right  reading 
says — He  shall  inherit  this,  these  things ;  that  is,  all  the  bless- 
edness and  glory  of  the  city  that  was  shown,  the  water  of  life 
from  the  inexhaustible  fountain  of  My  eternal  being  communi- 
cated to  him,  the  new  world  (Rom.  iv.  13) — the  new-created 
all  things.  Consequently,  the  translation  may  be  clearly  ex- 
pressed by  both — all  these  things. 

I  will  be  his  God-  —this  goes  back  once  more  to  the  first 
great  promise  of  the  typical  beginning  (Ex.  xix.  6,  xx.  2  ;  Lev. 
xxxvii.  27),  just  as  was  said  in  ver.  3.  The  "  God  with  them" 
(as  it  is  there,  not  without  signification)  is  fulfilled  only  in  Him 
who  is  called  Immaniiel  or  "  God  with  us."  But  here  we  have 
— in  a  specific  aj)plication,  the  misunderstanding  of  which  has 
misled  the  expositors — the  prominent  promise  of  2  Sam.  vii.  14, 
given  indeed  to  Christ,  but  to  Him  also  as  connected  with  His 
people  ;  for  in  the  Apocalypse  all  the  lines  of  all  the  types  and 
prophecies  run  together  to  one  great  all-comprehending  end. 
If,  as  the  misunderstanding  which  we  have  referred  to  expounds, 
the  overcomer  here  is  Christ  alone,  of  whom  the  Father  (strangely 
enough,  now  after  the  overcoming)  spoke  these  words,  the  quo- 
tation would  have  remained  unaltered — I  will  be  to 'Him  a 
Father.  But  this  is  not  its  form  here  ;  it  is  changed  in  order  to 
show  (more  plainly  than  when  both  were  originally  interwoven) 
that  here  the  promise  to  Christ  is  expressly  extended  to  all  His 
saints,  precisely  in  the  sense  of  the  last  promise  to  those  who 
overcome,  ch.  iii.  21.  That  is  the  truth  which  lies  at  the  bot- 
tom of  the  misunderstanding  of  that  exposition  ;  Of  every  one 
who  overcomes  that  holds  good,  which  holds  good  of  Me  !  Thus 
wonderfully  are  both  interwoven  in  the  fulfilled  reality  of  the 
typical  expression  :   Christ  becomes  our  God,  as  the  Father, 

the  throne  according  to  His  Divinity  or  glorification ;  He  is  the  Lamb  ac- 
cording to  His  suffering  humanity.  The  Father  is  not  manifested  save 
through  the  Son,  or  by  means  of  the  Son,  in  whom  is  the  ground  of  all 
manifestation,  and  who  is  the  appearance  of  the  Father." 


KEV.  XXI.  5-8.  219 

touching  His  humanity,  is  His  God — every  one  of  us  becomes 
Christ's  son,  both  according  to  His  Divinity  and  His  humanity, 
because  the  second  Adam,  the  JSIighty  God  (Immanuel — El- 
gilboi-),  becomes,  in  the  consummation  of  Plis  kingdom  of  peace, 
the  Everlasting  Father  of  all  who  derive  their  life  from  Plim.^ 

And  now  the  words  suddenly  descend  from  this  height  of 
consummated  \'ictory,  from  this  brightness  of  highest  glory,  to  a 
terrific  warning  glance  at  the  lost ;  which  may  affright  all  still 
capable  of  being  affrighted  into  the  desire  of  yet  overcoming. 
This  was  necessary  to  complete  the  salutary  teaching  of  the 
grace  that  disciplines  us  ;  however  much  a  perverted  habit  of 
thought,  or  effeminate  habit  of  feeling,  may  rebel  against  it. 

But  the  fearful  and  unbelieving  and  sinners,  the 
abo:\rinable  and  murderers  and  whoremongers,  and  sor- 
cerers and  idolaters  and  all  liars,  shall  have  their 
part  in  the  lable  which  burneth  with  fire  and  brim- 
STONE :  w^HiCH  IS  THE  SECOND  DEATH.^  He  that  overcometh 
shall  inherit  what  is  prepared  for  him  by  grace ;  on  the  other 
hand,  the  sinners  receive  their  meet  portion  in  strict  justice. 
The  words  proceed  with  three  times  three  significant  descrip- 
tions, not  of  sinners  generally  in  the  world  as  yet  untouched  by 
the  Gospel,  and  therefore  not  yet  ripe  for  the  decision  of  eternal 
judgment ;  but  of  those  same  unbelievers,  refusers  of  grace, 
and  apostates,  whom  the  Lord's  word  at  the  ascension,  Mark 
x^d.  15, 16,  leaves  in  conclusive  damnation,  the  preaching  of  the 
Gospel  to  them  being  presupposed.  But  he  that  believeth  not 
— that  is  the  fundamental  note  of  all,  and  all  else  follows  only 
from  that.  In  opposition  to  the  promised  eternal  inheritance, 
and  testified  by  the  like  sure  and  certain  words,  there  is  the 
dark  threatening  of  the  second  death  :  —  never  literally,  indeed, 
termed  in  Scripture  eternal  death;  yet  everywhere,  when  the 
same  sad  mysteiy  is  spoken  of  in  other  words,  most  plainly 
A\athout  hope  or  prospect  of  any  further  second  salvation — so  that 
for  the  unbelieving  (as  Harms  preaches)  "  there  is  not  only 
a  great  salvation  to  be  lost,  but  a  great  damnation  threatened." 

^  Is.  ix.  6,  in  its  right  translation  :  "Wonderful-Counsel ;  God-Hero  (Heb. 
as  in  ch.  x.  21);  Everlasting-Father;  Peace-Prince. 

^  We  follow  here  a  reading  recommended  by  Griesbach  and  Scholz — Kitl 
BtfAocprWhoi; — a  reading  which  strikingly  brings  out  the  measured  arrange- 
ment of  the  clauses,  and  which  we  cannot  therefore  avoid  accepting. 


220  FINAL  WORD  FROM  THE  THRONE. 

Even  in  this  terrific  threatening  there  remains  a  blessed 
testimony  to  the  grace  which  is  reserved  in  the  redemption  of 
all  prepared  for  it;  for  salvation  is  sure  to  persevering  faith. 
First  comes  the  fearful — all  hangs  upon  this  personal  fault  on 
the  part  of  the  lost.  These  are  obviously  not  the  weak  and 
dispirited,  who  rather,  according  to  Is.  xxxv.  4, 10,  shall  be  com- 
forted ;  but  they  are  the  faint-hearted  who  throw  away  their 
confidence,  concerning  whom  Heb.  x.  35-39  speaks,  according 
to  the  fundamental  meaning  of  another  prophetic  passage.^  This 
first  word  already  contains  the  rigorous  antithesis  to  the  over- 
comers;  and  it  is  then  explained  by  the  two  following  words 
(since  the  triplets  must  be  taken  together  throughout  the  verse)  : 
The  fearful  despair  and  remain  without,  because  they  are  unbe- 
lievers ;  thus  they  remain  in  spite  of  redemption,  becoming  again 
sinners,  having  fallen  back  entirely  into  sin  after  the  first  begin- 
ning of  sanctification.  Thus  ceases  the  thirsting  which  savingly 
impels  to  seek  invigoration,  and  its  place  is  taken  by  the  deceit- 
fulness  of  sin,  which  hurries  away  to  disgraceful  and  abomi- 
nable transgressions,  in  many,  if  not  in  all,  exhibited  according 
to  the  descriptions  which  follow.  The  preceding  word,  "  sin- 
ners," is  further  developed :  abominable^  (who  work  the  abomi- 
nation, ver.  27)  means  those  who  sink  into  unnatural  lusts  of 
the  flesh,  probably  the  "  dogs,"  ch.  xxii.  15,  and  correspond- 
ing to  those  mentioned  in  1  Cor.  vi.  9  ;  1  Tim.  i.  10; — mur- 
derers and  whoremongers  include  generally,  in  addition,  all  works 
of  hatred  and  impurity.  This  second  triplet  of  sins  which,  more 
or  less  foully,  yet  with  equal  guilt  before  the  judgment  of  God, 
express  the  wicked  spirit  disclosed  in  the  first  triplet,  is  followed 
by  a  third  which  finally  names  the  transgressions  exclusively 
committed  against  God,  as  the  second  referred  more  especially 
to  sins  against  .the  neighbour ;  and  the  close  returns  back  to  the 
beginning  by  a  final  definition  of  the  devilish  element  into  which 
these  wretched  souls  had  fallen.     Sorcerers^  and  idolaters — 

''  Ag/AoV,  co7vard,  is  used  generally  of  those  who  fail  to  stand  fast  in 
battle. 

^  ' E/ih'Kvy/itiuoi  is  more  specific  than  the  general  (ilikvKToi  Tit.  i.  16. 
In  the  Sept.  /33sXvy^4ot  occurs  for  ^25>^"^  Lev.  xviii.,  as  also  for  n^:tr>  Jer.  xi. 
15,  comp.  /SSsTiujcTcV,  Prov.  xvii.  15. 

•''  Not  specifically  poisonous,  according  to  the  derivation  of  the  word  ;  but 
cpapi^uKoi  according  to  the  phraseology  of  ch.  ix.  21,  xviii.  23  ;  Gal.  v.  20. 


REV.  XXI.  5-8.  221 

togetlier  express  all  apostasy  from  God,  the  going  into  forbid- 
den ways,  having  recourse  to  strange  and  wicked  powers ;  and 
its  profound  meaning  suggests  reference  to  1  Sam.  xv.  23.  In 
the  Apocalypse  itself,  ch.  ix.  20,  21  is  connected  with  tins;  but 
also  ch.  xiii.  15,  xvii.  4,  xviii.  23.  Again,  in  its  profoundest 
and  most  uriiversal  meaning,  St  John  in  his  first  Epistle,  ch.  v. 
21,  enforces  the  warning  against  idolatry  and  idolaters.  Finally, 
there  is  the  strengthening  addition — all  liars,  who  have  fallen 
into  the  lie  against  God's  wi'ath  in  whatever  way,  every  lie 
springing  from  the  same  principle  and  leading  to  the  same  con- 
demnation. In  ch.  xxii.  15  it  is  yet  plainer:  who  loveth  and 
mahetli  a  lie,  which  may  be  sufficiently  explained  without  many 
woi'ds  by  simply  referring  to  2  Thess.  ii.  11,  12  and  John  viii. 
44,  45.  This  is  then  the  comprehensive  sum  of  all :  the  fear- 
ful and  unbehevers  make  God  a  har  (1  John  v.  10,  i.  10),  and 
thereby  give  themselves  up  (that  is,  if  they  so  continue,  involved 
and  hardened  in  it  to  the  end)  to  the  devilish  lie,  which  is  the 
alone  unpardonable  sin  of  blasphemy  against  God's  truth. 

The  laJce  or  pool  (wrongly  translated  by  many,  sect)  is  here, 
according  to  the  valid,  fundamental  meaning  of  the  Greek 
word,^  the  residuum  and  caput  mortuum,  the  remaining  ruined 
residue  which  is  incapable  of  renewal.  By  no  means  is  it  merely 
a  "sensible  figurative  representation"  of  eternal  torment,  but 
as  physically  real  as  the  new  Jerusalem.  This  lake,  which 
has  been  ah-eady  three  times  mentioned,  ch.  xix.  20  and  again 
ch.  XX.  10,  14,  15,  comes  after  the  gi-eat  conflagration  in  the 
place  of  the  sea,  which  till  then  stood  in  close  connection  with 
the  depth  of  the  abyss ;  and  it  was  certainly  pretypified  by  the 
Dead  Sea  after  Sodom's  subversion,  although  then  "  fire  and 
l)rimstone "  was  only  rained  down  from  heaven  as  a  sign,  and 
did  not  continue  to  burn.  What  kind  of  fire  and  brimstone 
(pre-intunated  in  ch.  xiv.  10)  it  will  be  we  know  not,  any  more 
than  the  locality  of  the  lake  (ch.  xxii.  15,  comp.  Is.  Ixvi.  24, 
called  a  Without)  ;  but  our  presentient  exposition  should  receive 
Avhat  is  said  of  these  tilings,  as  a  description  of  what  is  to  come 
by  the  likeness  of  things  that  now  are.  It  is  the  Tophet  or 
place  of  burning,  Is.  Ixvi.  24,  xxx.  33 ;  Dan.  vii.  11  calls  it 
literally  the  burning  Jiame. 

The  Lord,  in  the  first  section  of  His  teaching  upon  earth, 
^  A.i(Avn,  cast  out  and  standing  water. 


222  FINAL  WORD  FROM  THE  THRONE. 

Matt.  XXV.  46  (comp.  ch.  xxvi.  1),  placed  first  eternal  tormentj 
and  closed  witli  eternal  life ;  but  now  the  order  is  inverted,  for 
the  stronger  warning  of  His  Church :  the  wisdom  of  His  love 
knows  that  it  is,  and  why  it  is,  necessary  thus  to  change.  How 
significantly  the  Apocalypse,  attesting  the  "wrath  of  the  Lamb" 
(ch.  vi.  16),  returns  back  to  the  judicial  severity  of  the  Old 
Testament,  we  have  already  observed.^  The  Lord  speaks  of 
eternal  torment  in  the  same  manner  as  of  eternal  life ;  assuredly, 
therefore,  the  second  death  can  be  only  eternal  death,  though 
the  word  is  not  expressly  used.  Elsewhere,  as  in  ch.  xiv.  11 
(after  Is.  xxxiv.  10),  we  read  of  the  endless  smoke  of  torment, 
as  similarly  of  the  undying  worm  and  the  fire  unquenchable. 
IMany,  like  Meyer,  repose  upon  the  thought,  "  It  is  not  said  that 
it  is  the  last  of  all"  and  hope  that  "  the  fire  of  Gehenna  may 
finally  diy  up  the  pride  of  the  twice  dead,  and  kindle  their 
thirst  for  the  water  of  life."  We  cannot  see  (even  if  it  were 
lawful  to  go  beyond  the  letter  of  Scripture)  how  that  were  pos- 
sible in  the  "  infinite  eternities."  We  bow  with  fearful  awe 
before  the  word  of  the  Lord,  as  we  find  it  written ;  and  could 
more  easily  think  that  from  the  saints  will  be  taken  away,  not 
only  all  their  suffering,  but  also  all  sympathy  with  the  lost. 
(Halleluiah !  ch.  xLx.  1-4.) 

Let  no  one  irreverently  wonder  that  the  Lord's  last  word 
from  the  throne  was — Wliicli  is  the  second  death  !  His  words 
of  promise,  invitation,  and  encouragement  had  been  abundant 
— from  the  word  outside  Damascus  down  to  the  word  addressed 
to  Paul's  infirmity ;  and  so  throughout  in  this  book.  Nor  is 
this  sad  word  the  actual  close  of  the  Apocalypse  :  it  is  followed 
by  the  description  of  the  gloiy  of  God  in  the  heavenly  city ; 
and  there  is  once  more  the  great  invitation,  ch.  xxii.  17 — Who- 
soever will,  let  him  take  the  water  of  life  freely  !  "  The  grace 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  with  all  the  saints,"  is,  in  ver.  22,  the 
gracious  end.  But  we  close  om'  little  book,  and  let  every  reader 
close  it,  with  the  prayer :  Even  so,  come.  Lord  Jesus ;  abide 
with  me  and  strengthen  my  faith,  that  I  become  not  fearful — 
defend  me  from  sin  and  shame — cleanse  and  sanctify  me,  that  I 
may  in  lowly  adoration  abide  faithful  to  Thy  truth,  that  I  may 
overcome  and  not  be  hurt  of  the  second  death  !     Amen. 

1  u  "VVords  of  the  Lord  Jesus,"  on  Luke  ix.  55. 


THE  EPISTLE  OF  ST  JAMES, 


EXPOUNDED  IN  THIRTY-TWO  DISCOUESES. 


BY  EUDOLF  STIEE. 


PREFACE. 


I  HAVE  been  often  and  importunately  asked  to  print,  for  more 
extended  use,  these  Sermons  on  St  James.  Having  been  long 
unaccustomed  to  write  my  discourses  beforehand,  it  was  difficult, 
amid  my  many  engagements,  to  comply  with  this  request. 
Nevertheless,  an  internal  impulse  prompted  me  to  do  my  best 
to  contribute  my  mite  towards  the  better  understanding  of  this 
little-rstudied  Epistle;  Jas.  iv.  17  came  powerfully  to  second 
the  request,  and  induce  me  to  regard  It  as  from  the  Lord.  I 
have  at  length  accomplished  my  purpose ;  and,  by  the  omission 
of  much  that  was  orally  expounded  and  applied  in  exhortation, 
and  retaining  simply  the  concise  fundamental  thoughts  which 
conduct  the  train  of  exposition,  have  succeeded,  I  trust,  in  pre- 
senting the  whole  in  such  a  form  as  will  suit  the  reader. 

This  is  a  plain  account  of  the  present  little  volume,  which  I 
now  send  forth  in  the  full  confidence  that  the  Lord  will  sane- 


224  PREFACE. 

tion  it  with  His  blessing.  Learned  readers  will  not,  indeed, 
find  a  commentary  which  searches  out  the  origmal,  but  they 
will  find  that  the  whole  rests  upon  careful  examination  of  the 
text.  The  practical  strain  of  obsen'ation  upon  this  Epistle, 
which  is  altogether  practical,  albeit  resting  upon  theory  and 
doctrine,  may  serve  to  supplement  some  other  commentaries, 
and  point  out  to  many  of  the  learned  the  way  which  alone  will 
conduct  to  its  adequate  exposition.  Preachers  Avill  easily  see 
how  these  sketches  were  or  should  be  expomided  in  the  Hving 
address.  But  readers  who  seek  edification — and,  where  the  m- 
terpretation  of  Scripture  is  concerned,  there  should  be  no  others 
— will  not,  I  hope,  be  uninstructed  and  unblessed :  to  all  such, 
these  briefer  notes  may  be  better  and  more  effectual  than 
ampler  dissertation,  w^hich  is  more  fitly  heard. 


TRIALS  PURE  JOY. 

(Ch.  i.  1^.) 

James,  a  servant  of  God  and  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  to  the  twelve  tribes 
which  are  scattered  abroad,  greeting.  My  brethren,  count  it  pure  joy 
when  ye  fall  into  divers  temptations ;  and  know  that  the  trying  of  your 
faith  worketh  patience.  But  let  patience  have  her  work  perfect,  that  ye 
may  be  perfect  and  entire,  wanting  nothing. 

The  writer  of  this  Epistle  does  not  call  himself  an  Apostle,  but 
a  servant  of  God  and  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ ;  it  is  possible  that 
he  was,  therefore,  the  Apostle  James  the  Less.  But  when  we  find 
St  Jude  introducing  himself  in  his  Epistle,  ver.  17  of  which 
with  equal  plainness  distinguishes  him  from  the  Apostles,  as  a 
brother  of  James,  we  are  disposed  to  regard  the  supposition  as 
highly  probable,  that  in  these  two  Epistles  two  of  the  brethren 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  (Matt.  xiii.  55)  are  speaking  to  us.  For 
many  reasons,  not  here  to  be  discussed,  we  are  convinced  that 
these  brethren  were  literally  the  children  of  i\Iary  by  Joseph  ; 
even  as  they  speak,  John  vii.  3-5,  according  to  household  usage 
in  their  mother's  house,  and  invariably  appear  in  company 
with  their  mother.  That  St  Jarnes  does  not  describe  himself 
as  the  brother,  but  as  the  sei'vant  of  the  Lord  of  Glory,  with 
whom  is  no  respect  of  persons  (ch.  ii.  1),  must  appear  cjuite 
natural  to  every  one.  "  A  servant  of  God  and  of  His  Son  :  " 
this  is  partly  an  Old-Testament  expression  ;  appropriate  to  the 
Bishop  of  Jerusalem,  who,  for  her  church's  sake,  adhered  per- 
manently and  faithfully,  as  far  as  was  lawful,  to  the  old  law 
(Acts  xxi.  18-20,  Gal.  i.  19) — James  the  Just,  as  he  was  called. 
But  his  Epistle  does  not  preach  to  us  a  legal  doctrine :  it  con- 
tains the  full  and  profound  truth  of  the  Gospel ;  exhibited, 
tlu'ough  the  wisdom  which  was  from  above,  in  a  manner  as  truly 
evangelical  as  that  of  St  Paul,  or  any  other  Apostle. 

And  what  is  the  first  thing  which  he  has  to  say  to  his 
readers  ?  He  sets  out  with  faith  in  ver.  3 ;  and  with  reference 
to  its  testing,  that  it  may  approve  itself  genuine  and  sound. 
This  is,  in  a  certain  sense,  the  theme  of  the  whole  Epistle. 

P 


226  TKIALS  PURE  JOY. 

And  liere  we  see  at  once  why  he  precisely  thus  addi'esses  his 
readers  in  the  introductory  greeting :  "  To  the  twelve  tribes 
which  are  scattered  abroad,  greeting  ! "  The  dispersion  of  the 
tribes  of  Israel  is,  according  to  the  Spirit's  further  meaning  for 
future  readers  of  the  Bible^  a  symbolical  expression :  comp. 
1  Pet.  i.  1.  The  tivelve  tribes  of  Israel  according  to  the  flesh 
were  then  no  longer  to  be  found;  but  the  spiritual  Israel  is  ever  to 
be  found  in  the  dispersion  of  this  world,  and  therefore  in  mani- 
fold trials.  And,  nevertheless,  he  greets  them  withyo^  to  you! 
This  Greek  greeting  {^aipeiv,  sent  also  in  Acts  xv,  23  by  St 
James  to  the  Gentile  brethren)  receives  here  a  profound  and 
beautiful  meaning.  Should  those  who  were  thus  greeted  answer, 
like  Tobias — "What  joy  shall  I  have,  who  must  sit  in  dark- 
ness, and  no  more  see  the  light  of  heaven  ?  " — vers.  2-4  give 
the  answer ;  and  there  we  have,  at  the  same  time,  the  substance 
of  the  whole  Epistle :  The  confirmation  of  true  faith  in  works  ! 
But  first  comes  the  work  of  the  patience  of  faith  in  tribulation. 

Wherefo7-e  should  ive  count  our  manifold  trials  to  he  pure 
joy  ?  Because  trial  is  the  necessary  test  of  faith,  and  works 
the  wholesome  effect  of  patience  in  tribulation.     . 

Faith  requires  test.  But  how  easy  is  dangerous  deception 
here  !  Even  in  earthly  faith,  knowledge,  ability,  and  possession, 
the  fundamental  question  comes  in — ;DoI  entirely  believe  this? 
Do  I  know  this  with  absolute  certainty  1  Am  I  assuredly  able 
for  this  ?  Is  this  really  mine  ?  and  under  all  circumstances  ? 
But  here  we  have  to  do  with  that  faith  by  which  alone  we  are 
saved ;  with  a  faith,  however,  which  is  so  entirely  opposed  to 
the  evil,  unbelieving  heart!  (Heb.  iii.  12).  Have  I  forgiveness? 
The  answer  to  this  is  not  to  be  lightly  despatched.  Have  I  also 
power  and  vigour  unto  holiness  ?  Do  I  stand  fast,  and  surely 
rooted,  in  the  life  of  regeneration  ?  Does  Christ  live  in  me,  so 
that  the  life  which  I  live  in  the  flesh  and  in  the  world  I  never- 
theless live  by  the  faith  of  the  Son  of  God  (Gal.  ii.  20)  ?  O 
how  needful  is  the  most  earnest  testing  here !  We  should  of 
ourselves  be  urged  constantly  to  apply  it,  and  to  this  the  word 
of  God  exhorts  us  :  "Examine  your  own  selves,  whether  ye  be 
in  the  faith;  prove  your  own  selves!"  (2  Cor.  xiii.  5).  No 
man  is  willing  in  the  slightest  things  to  be  deceived,  and  to 
live  in  uncertainty  :  but  here  no  less  is  involved  than  our  all ! 
The  final  test  will  infallibly  show  whether  we  have  altogether 


JAIIES  I.  1-4.  227 

run  in  A^ain,  and  missed  the  goal !  But  that  is  not  all  which  is 
to  be  feared  by  us,  as  if  it  were  enough  to  say — If  I  only  escape 
damnation  at  last !  No,  the  right  spirit  of  a  loving  faith  is 
anxious  that  the  faithful  God  should  have  as  much  honour  from 
us  and  joy  in  us  His  servants  as  may  be  possible  through  His 
grace  ;  and  that  we  should  not  bring  discredit  upon  our  gracious 
Lord  through  unfaithfulness,  Aveakness,  or  half-heartedness  in 
His  ser-vice.  But  we  are  too  much  indisposed  to  this  kind  of  test, 
and  are  too  much  inclined  to  think  of  ourselves  as  Peter  thouoht. 
As  Peter  spoke,  so  speak  also  all  the  disciples,  and  the  Lord  must 
mournfully  ask  — "  Do  ye  now  believe  ?  The  hour  cometli  that 
ye  shall  be  scattered,  and  leave  Me  alone !"  (John  xvi.  31,  32). 
Therefore,  the  faithful  God  comes  to  our  help  by  the  wholesome 
tests  of  affliction,  that  He  may  save  us  from  self-deception. 

Faith  receives  this  so  necessary  test  only  in  trials.  This 
word  has  an  evil  sound  as  temptation ;  it  might  seem  as  if  God 
were  not  faithful  and  good  in  applying  such  tests,  as  if  He  put 
stumbling-blocks  in  our  way  that  we  might  fall.  But  that 
troubles  should  thus  become  temptation  to  us,  lies  in  ourselves 
and  in  our  own  folly,  as  St  James  afterwards  takes  care  to 
t teach.  God's  part  in  our  trials  serves  only  for  the  purpose  of 
salutary  testing  of  faith,  in  order  that  it  may  be  confirmed. 
Alas,  as  a  thousand  examples  show,  not  every  tribulation 
worketh  patience,  yea  not  every  test  of  an  existing  faith  ap- 
proves and  confirms  that  faith  as  real.  If,  however,  our  faith 
is  not  extinguished,  but  abides,  it  becomes  in  this  discipline 
manifest  as  genuine  faith.  That  is,  its  lach  is  at  once  disclosed 
and  supplied ;  and  the  good  tvhicJi  is  in  it  is  at  once  revealed 
and  strengthened.  "  That  ye  may  be  perfect  and  entire,  lack- 
ing nothing !"  Alas,  in  hoW  many  things  are  we  all  still  lack- 
ing, though  we  rightlv  know  it  not !  Even  the  right  and 
believing  attention  to  the  word,  which  however  should  be  the 
beginning  and  foundation  of  all,  is  not  found  in  us  as  it  should 
be  before  tribulation  teaches  it  (Is.  xxviii.  19).  We  may  long 
fail  to  know  in  our  inmost  souls,  Avithout  being  conscious  of  the 
lack,  that  God  alone  is  true  in  His  promise  and  in  His  threat- 
ening ;  when  the  testing  time  conies,  we  may  be  found  wanting, 
to  om'  own  great  amazement,  even  in  this.  It  is,  indeed,  a  melan- 
choly experience,  to  be  constrained  to  admit  that  we  haA^e  no 
root,  Avhen  the  heat  and  the  storm  come  suddenly  upon  us!     But 


228  TRIALS  PURE  JOY. 

to  discover  this  tlirougli  tests  before  tlie  last  one,  and  while  there 
is  yet  time  to  cast  forth  deeper  roots,  must  needs  be  matter  of 
thankfulness  and  joy.  Yea,  to  be  constrained  to  feel  and  con- 
fess the  perilous  lack,  is  itself,  if  we  are  sincere  with  God  and 
our  souls,  abundant  cause  for  joy.  Joseph  became  all  that  the 
grace  of  God  designed  him  to  be,  only  after  God's  word  came 
to  him  in  his  distress,  and  the  word  of  the  Lord  did  try  him 
(Ps.  cv.  19).  Discerning  our  need,  we  seek  forgiveness  for 
secret  sin  and  guilt ;  strength  from  above  for  oiu-  impotence  ; 
and  the  grace  of  sincere  obedience  to  counteract  the  treachery 
of  our  own  hearts.  And  he  that  seeketh  findeth !  Necessity 
teaches  io  pray ;  teaches  us  not  to  put  oui*  trust  in  ourselves,  but 
in  God  who  raiseth  the  dead  (2  Cor.  i.  9);  not  to  look  at  earthly 
but  at  heavenly  things ;  not  to  rely  upon  the  staff  of  a  broken 
reed  which  goes  into  a  man's  hand  if  he  lean  upon  it  (Is. 
xxxvi.  6),  but  to  build  upon  the  sure  foundation  which  is  un- 
moved for  ever !  And  this  brings  the  joy  of  the  only  right 
glorying — "I  am  filled  with  comfort,  I  am  exceeding  joyful  in 
all  my  tribulation"  (2  Cor.  vii.  4). 

And  what  pure  joy,  to  have  full  demonstration,  in  the  time 
of  tribulation^  of  the  good  which  the  gi'ace  of  God  had  im- 
planted in  the  soul  dm'ing  better  days !  It  is  in  the  darkness 
that  the  light  arises  in  all  its  briohtness — like  the  stars  in  the 
night.  The  Clmstian  may  have  received  from  God  in  the 
tranquil  simplicity  of  his  soul  much  more  than  he  himself  is 
conscious  of ;  and  the  treasure  of  his  grace  may  not  be  known 
to  himself  until  the  stern  inquiry  is  made  which  brings  it  to  the 
light.  When  the  question  is  then  asked,  Where  is  thy  faith  ? 
how  precious  to  be  able  to  answer  by  the  best  demonstration, 
Blessed  Lord,  it  is  here !  And  even  if  it  should  not  at  once 
display  itself,  examination  is  made,  old  slumbering  experiences 
revive,  the  foundation  in  the  inner  man  shows  itself  firm ;  the 
gift  of  God  is  stirred  up,  and  the  spark  is  fanned  to  a  flame 
(2  Tim.  i.  6).  Is  not  tliat^o?/?  And  this  exercise  increases  the 
strength  which  is  in  us.  In  trials,  our  faith  becomes  more  pm'e, 
better  able  to  rest  upon  the  Word  alone,  to  believe  without  see- 
ing or  feeling — so  that  we  learn  to  live  from  faith  to  faith. 
Thus  toe  glory  in  tribulations  :  knowing  that  tribulation  workcth 
patience,  and  patience  experience,  and  experience  hope  ;  and 
hope  maketh  not  ashamed  (Eom.  v.  3-5).     To  glory  in  tribula- 


JAMES  I.  1-4.  229 

tioii  is  assuredly  the  highest  degree  of  the  life  of  faith ;  thus  in 
the  work  of  patience  our  sanctification  is  perfected  in  the  supply 
of  all  that  we  lack. 

Let  us,  therefore,  count  our  manifold  trials  pure  joy,  on  ac- 
count of  this  salutary  effect  of  patience  !  But  patience  must 
accomplish  its  perfect  work — says  St  James.  That  it  does  in 
trials — first,  as  the  test  and  the  act  of  an  existilig  faith ;  and  as 
the  only  way  to  perfection.  What  is  the  so-called  faith  which 
yet  can  endure  nothing,  which  cannot  abide  to  be  earnestly 
tested  ?  What  faith  is  that  which  cannot  trust  in  dark  ways, 
which  does  not  create  obedience  in  hard  tasks,  and  patient  con- 
tinuance in  hope  towards  God?  We  are  partakers  of  Christ 
then  only  when  we  hold  fast  the  beginning  of  confidence  to  the 
end  (Heb.  iii.  14).  This  precious  work  of  patience  is  the  essen- 
tial and  necessar}"  continuance,  to  wdiich  alone  the  kingdom  is 
appointed  (Luke  xxii.  28,  29) — the  acceptance  of  trials  with- 
out suffering  them  to  weaken  us  as  temptation ;  thus  all  our 
knowledge  enters  into  our  will,  all  our  faith  and  feeling  into 
our  work,  and  we  approve  ourselves  in  all  things  to  be  the  ser- 
vants of  God.  For  our  Master  and  Forennmer,  the  Beginner 
and  Finisher  of  our  faith,  was  thus  tested  and  approved,  be- 
cause for  our  sake  He  entered  into  the  sei'vant-foi'm  of  obe- 
dience. Although  Pie  was  the  Son,  yet  He  learned  obedience 
in  that  which  He  suffered,  and  thus  became  perfect  as  the  Cap- 
tain of  our  eternal  salvation  (Heb.  v.  8,  9).  Thus  was  it  with 
all  believers  before  He  came  ;  so  that  even  Judith  could  make 
mention  of  the  manifold  temptations  of  father  Abraham,  and 
that  he  became  the  friend  of  God  after  he  had  stood  many  fiery 
tests  ;  and  how  Isaac,  Jacob,  Moses,  and  all  in  whom  God  took 
delight,  were  called  to  overcome  great  tribulations  (Judith  viii.). 
It  is  for  ever  true  that  "  we  have  need  of  patience,  that  we  may 
do  the  will  of  God,  and  inherit  the  promise"  (Heb.  x.  36).  But 
the  right  doing  of  the  Divine  will  is  perfected  in  the  surrender 
of  oiu'  will  to  voluntary  suffering,  in  the  imitation  and  fellow- 
ship of  Christ,  and  His  cross.  This  great  word  St  James  does 
not  here  mention ;  but  he  means  precisely  the  same  as  St  Peter 
does  :  "  Rejoice,  inasmuch  as  ye  are  partakers  of  Christ's  suffer- 
ings ;  that,  when  His  glory  shall  be  revealed,  ye  may  be  glad 
also  with  exceeding  joy  "  (1  Pet.  iv.  13). 

The  work  of  patience  in   faith  is  for  us  the  only  way  to 


230  TRIALS  PURE  JOY. 

perfection  : — that  we  may  be  finally  perfect  and  complete  ! 
Sanctified  mnst  all  be,  through  faith  in  Him,  who  shall  receive 
the  inheritance  (Acts  xxvi.  18).  Purified  through  and  through 
from  all  still  adhering  and  admiugled  sin  !  But  this  can  take 
place  only  through  the  opposite  of  that  by  which  we  fell.  Pride 
is  the  ground  and  source  of  our  sin — therefore  God  abases  and 
brings  us  low !  ■  Yain  and  false  pleasure  entices  and  binds  us 
long — therefore  God  ministers  the  smart  of  loss  and  suffering ! 
Unbelief  and  disobedience  have  penetrated  our  souls  far  more 
thoroughly  than  without  test  we  could  ever  comprehend — there- 
fore God  thus  urgently  demands  faith  and  obedience !  And 
they  who  do  not  withstand  His  power,  grow  and  thrive  under 
the  discipline  ;  because  He  holds  out  to  prayer  and  acceptance 
the  very  grace  which  He  requires  in  us.  ]\Iark  those  believers 
who  have  passed  through  many  trials,  and  have  retained  their 
faith :  what  a  maturity,  wrought  out  in  the  heat  of  tribulation, 
shows  itself  in  them — how  different  from  those  who  have  not 
been  tempted !  Our  robes  are  washed  and  made  white  in  great 
tribulation  (Rev.  vii.  14).  In  the  keen  chemistry  of  patience 
we  are  pm'ified  from  all  that  is  not  faith,  that  is  not  obedience ; 
we  become  strong  and  entire,  made  whole  by  such  experience 
and  discipline,  entire  men  and  entire  Christians — wanting 
notliiiig.  Much  may  be  wanting  externally  ;  but  there  is  peace 
and  joy,  light  and  strength,  in  the  inner  man.  Thus  glories 
the  Apostle :  "  I  know  both  how  to  be  abased,  and  I  know  how 
to  abound :  everywhere  and  in  all  things  I  am  initiated  both  to 
be  full  and  to  be  hungry  (even  in  the  spirit),  both  to  abound 
and  to  suffer  need.  (For,  in  the  midst  of  this  need,  this  poverty 
and  weakness,  strong  faith  can  say — )  I  can  do  all  things 
through  Christ,  which  strengtheneth  me"  (Phil.  iv.  12, 13).  Is 
it  not  joy  to  reach  that  point,  or  even  clearly  to  discern  that  m'C 
are  approaching  that  goal,  and  on  the  way  to  full  perfection  ? 
To  know,  with  absolute  certainty,  I  am  in  the  right  loay  !  in  the 
midst  of  the  dispersion  of  this  world  ?  True,  that  another  say- 
ing also  holds  good :  "  ]^o  chastening  for  the  present  seemeth  to 
be  joyous,  but  grievous"  (Heb.  xii.  11).  How  else  would  it  be 
discipline  or  trial?  It  is  true  that  we  have  not  yet  noio,  while 
we  are  for  a  season  in  heaviness  through  manifold  temptations, 
that  joy  unspeakable  and  full  of  glory  with  which  we  shall  re- 
joice at  the  end  of  om-  confirmed  faith  (1  Pet.  i.  5-9).     But  we 


J^VilES  I.  5-8.  231 

are  exhorted  to  prize  the  way  only  as  leading  to  its  glorious 
goal.  Trial  itself  is  not  joy,  but  faith  must  and  may  esteem  it 
as  joy  to  be  prepared  by  it  for  eternal  bliss — understanding 
and  embracing  the  greeting  of  the  Spirit  of  grace,  Joy  unto  you 
heforeliand !  The  obedience  of  faith  goes  gladly  in  the  way 
which  God  directs;  patience  makes  diligent  and  persevering 
use  of  all  that  the  faithful  God  imposes. 

Know  it,  therefore,  aright  that  the  trial  of  your  faith 
worketh  patience,  and  that  patience  in  her  perfect  work  maketh 
you  perfect  and  entire !  Therefore,  count  not  strange  the 
divers  trials  of  your  life,  as  if  there  could  be  no  joy  in  them  for 
you !  Divers,  indeed,  they  are,  as  we  all  of  us  experience  in 
due  time ;  the  happiest  shall  find  his  own  especial  trouble. 
Divers  tribulations  from  without  and  within,  of  body  and  of 
soul,  in  all  the  various  forms  which  the  wisdom  of  God  may 
adjust  for  each.  The  foolish  heart  may  murmur,  and  ask — 
Wherefore  is  this  or  that  sent  to  me  ?  Why  are,  not  one 
misfortune  alone,  but  many  of  them  following  each  other  and 
intermingled,  sent  upon  my  poor  spirit?  Only  direct  thy 
faith  to  the  depths  both  of  the  wisdom  and  knowledge  of  God, 
that  it  may  honour  His  judgments  and  ways,  the  individual  par- 
ticulars of  wdiich  the  human  mind  can  never  understand !  The 
Good  Physician  will  surely  make  thee  whole,  if  thou  sm'renderest 
thyself  to  His  hands;  and  to  that  end  He  gives  thee,  out  of  the 
boundless  dispensary  of  all  things  which  are  at  His  command, 
evermore  the  best  remedies  for  thy  disease. 


II. 

ASKING  roil  WISDOM. 

(Ch.  i.  5-8.) 

If  any  of  you  lack  wisdom,  let  him  ask  of  God,  that  giveth  to  all  men 
with  simplicity,  and  upbraideth  not ;  and  it  shall  be  given  him.  But 
let  him  ask  in  faith,  nothing  wavering.  For  he  that  wavereth  is  hke 
a  wave  of  the  sea,  driven  with  the  wind  and  tossed.  For  let  not  that 
man  think  that  he  shall  receive  anything  of  the  Lord.  A  double- 
minded  man  is  unstable  in  all  his  ways. 

Were  we  only  such  knockers  and  askers  as  the  gracious 
exhortation  and  promise  of  our  Lord  Jesus  would  make  us, 


232  ASKING  FOR  WISDOM. 

then  should  we  more  and  more  receive  what  is  wanting  in  us — 
joy  in  tribulation,  patience  under  trials — and  thus  stand  in  the 
day  of  judgment  with  a  confirmed  and  perfect  faith.  And  is 
it  His  fault  or  ovirs  that  it  is  not  so  with  us?  The  gate  of 
grace  is  indeed  a  strait  gate,  but  it  is  an  open  one,  to  which 
all  are  invited ;  and  the  faithful  ear  of  Him  who  would  have 
His  house  full,  marks  every  knock.  Joy  unto  you !  is  the 
sound  with  which  the  rejoicing  message  of  the  Gospel  greets 
us.  Yea,  the  gracious  Enter!  Enter!  is  loudly  sounded  in  our 
ears  before  we  come  and  knock.  The  Father  tells  us  through 
the  Son,  Ask,  and  ye  shall  receive!  And  this  embassage  St 
James,  as  the  servant  of  God,  extends  to  all  who  read  and 
hear  his  word,  in  this  his  earnest  invitation  to  ask.  Let  us 
observe  icho  is  invited  to  ask ;  for  what,  of  icJwm,  and  finally 
Jioic,  we  must  ask. 

Who,  first,  is  thus  invited?  Obviously,  only  he  to  whom 
something  is  lacking  which  he  would  fain  have  and  deeply 
needs.  Thus  those  who  are  perfect  and  entire,  wanting  nothing 
—  St  James  does  not  invite  to  ask  and  receive.  If  thou  hast  no 
consciousness  of  sin,  then  say  not — Forgive  me !  If  thou  f eelest 
no  weakness,  then  cry  not — Strengthen  me  !  If  no  trouble 
oppresses  thee,  how  canst  thou  say — Help  me  and  deliver  me  ! 
He  who  lacks  nothing,  has  nothing  to  ask  for.  But  such  are 
none  of  us,  beloved!  Is  there  one  among  us  who  can,  otherwise 
than  in  joyful  hope,  sing,  "  The  Lord  is  my  Shepherd,  I  shall 
want  nothing  (while,  that  is,  I  continue  to  take  from  Him  the 
supplies  He  gives)  ;"  wdio  already,  while  on  earth,  sits  in  the 
midst  of  the  fulness  of  heaven  ;  and  who,  to  speak  foolishness, 
has  gone  beyond  the  need  of  the  use  of  the  entire  Lord's 
Prayer  ?  Brethren,  there  is  much  lacking  to  us  all ;  and  what 
we  receive,  how  speedily  do  wo  lack  again  !  Perfect  and 
entire,  holy  and  unblameable,  before  Him,  are  we  only  in 
love.  Let  then  the  friend  come,  sent  to  your  care  by  the  great 
Friend,  and  you  have  no  supply  in  your  own  hand  for  his 
necessity.  You  need  one  loaf  for  the  guest ;  one  for  yourself, 
that  you  may  eat  with  him  as  is  fit;  and  yet  one  more,  that  there 
may  be  no  scantiness,  as  in  spiritual  things  there  should  never 
be.  Whence  are  the  three  loaves  to  come  ?  Can  you  make 
them  by  any  power  of  your  own?  You  cannot  make  to  yourself 
a  crumb  for  yom-  own  poor  bodily  necessity,  unless  God  give 


JAMES  I.  5-8.  2  S3 

it — and  can  you  provide  the  bread  of  life,  of  love  ?  Empty  of 
this  we  all  are  of  ourselves :  dig  it  yovi  cannot,  therefore  be  not 
ashamed  to  beg  it  at  the  door  of  the  Most  High,  as  yonr  highest 
honom*.  This  might  we,  and  this  should  we  all.  But  few  receive 
this  saying;  they  deny  rather  and  cloak  their  bitter  need,  or 
else  labour  in  vain  to  supply  their  need  for  themselves.  These 
St  James  leaves  in  their  darkness,  and  says — If  any  man 
among  you  lack.  Sayest  thou.  That  man  am  I !  then  hear 
further  for  ichat  thou  art  invited  to  ask. 

What  we  must  ask  for  : — that  indeed  we  first  truly  laioiv  in 
the  time  of  trial  of  which  we  have  heard  ;  ordinarily  we  are  too 
apt  to  be  satisfied  and  content.  And  this  is  true  not  only  of 
the  children  of  this  world,  who,  like  the  rich  man,  have  all 
external  abundance  every  day;  alas!  it  is  true  also  of  those 
Christians  who  are  pointed  at  by  that  parable,  however  unwill- 
ing they  may  be  to  think  so.  They  think  themselves  ah'eady 
kings  and  priests  in  purple  and  fine  linen  ;  they  have  reached, 
as  might  be  thought,  a  state  of  perfection.  They  have  so  much 
faith,  that  they  cannot  speak  enough  about  the  excellency  of 
that  virtue,  and  how  it  is  faith  that  brings  everj'thing,  and 
accomplishes  everything  that  concerns  the  gloiy  of  God's  grace, 
^loreover,  they  have  so  much  icisdom  that  they  are  masters  of 
Scripture,  free  from  all  error,  and  can  be  all  men's  teachers 
in  the  knowledge  of  the  truth,  as  they  call  all  their  own  opin- 
ions. Such  people  will  never  be  taught  othei'wise  till  trials 
bring  them  to  feel  their  littleness  and  poverty.  Thus  not  to 
them  at  once,  but  to  all  who  feel  their  need,  the  gracious  invi- 
tation is  given ;  to  all  who  are  so  much  tried  that  their  de- 
ficiency has  been  proved  to  their  souls ;  and  to  all  those  who 
are  so  far  simple,  sincere,  and  humble,  as  to  expect  tribulation 
with  anxiety,  fearing  that,  if  it  befell  them,  they  might  be  found 
wanting.  "V\Tiat  are  they  then  to  ash — now  in  anticipation, 
and  afterwards  w^hen  the  affliction  comes  ? 

Here  we  are  not  told  to  ask  for  help  and  salvation,  for  the 
turning  away  of  trouble,  the  removal  of  the  danger.  To  ask  for 
nothing  but  that  is  a  dangerous  and,  strictly  considered,  unin- 
telligible prayer;  although  the  merciml  God  imputes  it  not  as 
sin  to  our  weakness  and  folly,  as  our  distress  drives  us  instinct- 
ively to  ask  for  deliverance.  Further,  St  James  does  not  here 
tell  us  that  we  should  pray  for  patience,  for  strong  faith,  for 


234  ASKING  FOR  WISDOM. 

grace  in  order  to  obedience  and  resignation — althougli  assuredly 
here  lies  the  fundamental  want  of  our  poor  souls.  Thus  to 
pray  would  be  indeed  a  most  intelligent  and  excellent  supplica- 
tion, yea,  the  wisest  and  best  that  a  sinful  man  could  put  uj) ' 
to  God: — therefore  it  is  the  last  which  we  learn,  as  crying  for 
mere  deliverance  is  the  first.  But  we  do  not  at  once  attain  to 
this ;  therefore  St  James,  taking  his  stand  midway,  mentions 
with  striking  point  this  only — If  any  man  among  you  lacketh 
wisdom  !  For  this  is  itself  wisdom  coming  down  from  above, 
and  which,  therefore,  must  first  be  prayed  for,  to  know  that  we 
ought  rather  to  pray — "O  God,  take  not  away  my  trial  from 
me;  but  give  me  pjitience  that  I  may  enjoy  its  salutary  and 
peaceable  fruits  !"  And,  further,  if  I  rightly  understand  that, 
it  is  important  to  understand  also  hoio  in  every  particular  trial 
patience  is  perfectly  to  effect  its  good  work.  We  must  not 
here  take  St  James'  great  word — If  any  man  lack  tcisdom,  let 
him  ask  for  it! — in  its  full  and  universal  meaning  (which  it 
indeed  includes)  ;  for,  every  word  in  this  profound  Epistle  has 
its  OAvn  significance,  and  in  the  third  chapter  we  are  exhorted 
to  contemplate  and  ask  for  wisdom  in  all  its  fulness.  But  we 
now  adhere  to  the  meaning  which  the  connection  imposes  upon 
the  word — Wisdom  in  the  trial  and  for  the  trial.  Yea,  it  is  a 
good  thing  also  to  seek  wusdom  in  preparation  for  future  trial ; 
and  this  refers  not  merely  to  this  or  that  tempted  "  an^  man"  but 
to  every  man  among  us,  since  trial  impends  over  us  all. 

Brethren,  w^e  all  lack  at  the  beginning,  and  unless  we  ask 
shall  always  lack,  that  precious,  needful  wisdom  which  knows 
how  to  understand,  and  receive,  and  use  trials  aright.  First,  to 
understand  them  fundamentally  and  according  to  truth  : — that 
trial  is  not  evil  in  itself,  and  not  evil  to  lis  ;  but  that  the  design 
of  the  tribulation  of  Christians  is  absolutely  good  and  gracious. 
That  is  wisdom,  to  know  whence  the  trial  comes,  that  is,  from 
the  Father  of  spirits,  the  Giver  of  every  good  gift ;  to  know  to 
Vvhat  it  tends,  that  is,  to  salutary  discipline,  and  above  all  and 
foremost  to  self-knowledge,  as  a  defence  against  the  folly  of 
self-deception.  He  who  so  understands  it,  and  only  he,  will 
receive  it  unto  repentance,  which  the  grace  accompanying  it  will 
work  ;  he  Avill  say  with  docility,  under  the  mighty  hand  of  God, 
thus  disclosino-  the  OTound  of  his  heart,  "  Behold,  Thou  desirest 
truth  in  the  inward  parts  :  and  Thou  makest  me  to  know  secret 


JAjMES  I.  5-8.  235 

wisdom"  (Ps.  li.  6).  He  who  thus  receives  trial,  and  only  he, 
will  finally  use  it  to  his  sanctification,  purity,  and  perfection. 
This  sincei'e,  humble,  diligent  use  of  trial  is,  in  fact,  for  the 
children  of  men,  the  highest  and  best  of  all  possible  wisdom ; 
and  is  it  not  most  sadly  lacking  sometimes  among  those  who 
are  truly  wise  and  prudent"?  Is  it  not  an  exceptional  case 
when  we  find  one  who  rightly  demeans  himself  under  the  dis- 
ciplining hand  of  God,  without  any  foolish  recoil  from  His 
chastisement  ?  Therefore  so  many  suffer  so  many  things  in 
vain  ;  and  make  their  heavenly  Father's  dealings  with  them 
harder  than  His  heart  would  be  disposed  to  make  them.  The 
wise  Solomon  says,  "  If  the  iron  be  blunt,  and  he  do  not  whet 
the  edge,  then  must  he  put  to  more  strength  :  but  wisdom  is 
profitable  to  direct"  (Eccles.  x.  10).  O  how  many  there  are 
who,  after  all  their  careful  efforts,  are  forced  to  discover  that 
they  have  not  had  this  wisdom  in  their  afflictions — that  they 
have  not  understood  the  virtue  of  quiet  patience  and  urgent 
prayer  !  And  fearful  is  it,  at  the  end  of  a  whole  life  of  salutary 
sufferings,  which,  however,  have  failed  to  bring  the  soul  to 
salvation,  to  find  that  that  wisdom  has  been  altogether  wanting! 
But  why  was  it  so  ?  Ye  have  not  learned  to  pray  : — and  why 
have  ye  not  1  Ye  would  not  riglitly  know  what  it  was  ye 
lacked !  This  is  the  crown  of  wisdom,  not  to  neglect  even  to 
the  last  to  ask  and  receive ;  but  it  is  also  the  beginning  of 
Avisdom,  when  God  says,  "Ask  ivhat  I  shall  give  thee!"  to 
know  what  that  should  be,  and  with  Solomon  to  ask  an  obedient 
heart.  And  so  it  ever  proceeds,  between  the  beginning  and  the 
end ;  there  is  the  constant  need  to  know  hoiv  to  obey,  and  to 
suffer,  and  to  use  for  salvation  what  God  has  given.  Therefore, 
if  any  man  lack  wisdom,  let  him  ask  ! 

And  of  ivhom  f  Obviously  of  God,  of  Him  who  has  all  good 
things  for  us,  of  that  Lord  who  is  rich  unto  all  who  call  upon 
Him  (Rom.  x.  12).  St  James  terms  Him  God  luho  giveth  ; 
and,  in  the  original,  it  runs  as  it  were  with  emphasis — The 
giving  God  !  All  other  givers,  at  whose  hands  we  may  seek  any- 
thing, received  first  from  Him,  and  can  give  only  through  Him. 
From  men  we  may  ask  and  receive  wisdom,  and  should  not 
refuse  it ;  but  best  of  all,  in  all  cases,  is  it  to  repair  at  once  to 
the  Fountain  whence  alone  the  pure  stream  flows.  That  is 
God,  who  left  Himself  not  without  a  witness  to  the  Gentiles  in 


236  ASKING  FOR  WISDOM. 

their  own  ways  ;  who  givetli  to  all  men  life,  and  breath,  and  all 
things ;  who  will  give  to  ns,  who  have  the  word  of  His  grace, 
the  inheritance,  if  we  yield  up  our  hearts  to  the  sanctifying  in- 
fluence of  all  the  riches  of  assured  understanding,  to  the  acknow- 
ledgment of  the  mysteiy  of  God  the  Father,  and  Christ,  in  whom 
are  hid  all  the  treasures  of  wisdom  and  knowledge  (Col.ii.  2,  3). 
All  things  in  Him  are  already  ready  for  us  ;  we  have  only  to 
go  and  take  what  is  ours;  and  if  thy  feeble  faith  ask — Are  they 
even  for  me  ?  St  James  says,  AYho  giveth  to  every  man  or  to 
all;  for  giving  is  His  pleasure,  as  His  Son  has  told  us.  To  give 
is  more  blessed  than  to  receive  (Acts  xx.  35).  Think,  O  evil 
and  unthankful  man,  whether  thou  hast  not  received  many 
good  things  in  thy  lifetime  even  without  prayer  !  Think,  thou 
who  mayest  have  prayed  a  little,  whether  He  hath  not  heard 
9nd  answered  thee  many  times  !  Thank  His  Father-name,  thou 
who  canst  pray  in  the  name  of  Jesus  ;  glorify  the.  Giver  with 
ever-increasing  supplication,  that  thy  joy  may  be  full !  He 
verily  will  not  be  weary  of  giving ;  for  He  giveth  liberally,  or 
with  simplicity/.  Thus  to  give  even  we  are  exhorted  by  St  Paul, 
as  being  imitators  of  God  and  dear  children  ;  and  what  is  his 
meaning  in  that  place?  Let  him  that  hath  a  ministry,  or  a 
teaching,  wait  on  his  ministering,  and  on  his  teaching ;  he  that  is 
fit  to  rule,  let  him  rule  with  diligence  (Rom.  xii.  7,  8).  So  he 
that  giveth  with  simplicity,  will  simply  give ;  it  will  be  a  pure, 
unmingled  giving,  without  any  admixture.  Indeed,  evil  men 
cannot,  before  grace  has  fundamentally  taught  them  to  under- 
stand our  Lord's  saying,  give  with  simplicity ;  therefore,  al- 
though selfishness  may  be  willing  to  receive  from  man,  pride 
on  the  other  hand  often  forbids  it  to  ask,  resenting  the  being 
pla:ced  under  an  obligation  ;  and  we  cannot  but  acknowledge 
something  right  in  the  poor  evil  man  who  is  ashamed  to  be  a 
beggar  at  the  gate  of  the  wicked.  Men  either  give  gifts  which 
are  not  good,  such  as  God  always  gives ;  or  they  give  them  not 
willingly,  without  the  ready  heartiness  of  love.  At  men's  doors 
there  must  be  long  and  frequent  knocking,  before  they  are  opened; 
but  God  Himself  invites  and  entreats  us  to  come,  and  leaves  us 
nothing  to  do  but  to  ask  for  the  abundance  of  His  gifts.  Men, 
finally,  often  give  without  affection  and  grace,  spoiling  and 
embittering  their  gifts  by  a  proud  and  repulsive  manner  of  giving ; 
but  God  giveth  liberally  to  every  man,   and  iiphraideth  not! 


JAMES  I.  o-S.  237 

Xot  that  He  invalidates  the  former  sin,  on  account  of  which 
thou  art  not  worthy  to  receive  the  things  which  thou  askest ;  but 
He  does  not  regard  and  rebuke  the  defect  of  distrust  or  pre- 
sumption which  may  adhere  to  thy  prayer  ;  He  does  not  restrain 
His  giving  because  of  the  future  unthankfulness  and  perver- 
sion of  His  gifts  which  He  may  foresee.  When  He  upbraids, 
this  is  the  matter  of  His  complaint,  that  we  do  not  come  to 
receive  with  as  much  simplicity  as  that  mth  which  He  is  ready 
to  give  ;  as  He  said  to  David,  "  I  gave  thee  thus  and  thus  ;  and 
if  that  had  been  too  little,  I  would  moreover  have  given  thee 
such  and  such  things"  (2  Sam.  xii.  7,  8).  Let  not  him,  there- 
fore, that  lacketh  anything  be  ashamed  before  this  throne  of 
grace  ;  let  him  ash  of  this  giving  God  !  And  it  shall  he  given  him  ! 
that  is  a  positive  declaration  of  a  most  certain  thing.  Surely 
we  are  not  all  beyond  the  lack  of  anything  :  then  let  every  one 
consider  what  is  wanting  to  himself.  Let  him  ask  I  is  con- 
stantly, graciously,  and  abundantly  said — yet,  alas  !  we  ask  not. 
Or,  if  vv^e  ask,  we  receive  not — because  we  ask  amiss  (Jas.  iv.  3). 
Thus  it  depends  upon  something  which  we  have  already  men- 
tioned, and  shall  now  consider. 

IIoiv  are  we  to  ask  ?  The  answer  is,  We  must  simply  ask,  and 
that  as  of  God,  of  that  God  ivho  giveth  simply  to  every  man ; 
that  is,  as  St  James  goes  on  to  say, — Bvit  let  him  ask  in  faith  ! 
And  nothing  more  than  this  ?  Is  this  all  the  mystery  of  this 
most  important  business,  the  only  condition  on  which  it  is  sus- 
pended ?  Is  it  not  added — In  humility  ?  This  indeed  is  self- 
understood,  when  we  poor  sinners  really  ask  of  the  Most  High 
God.  Is  it  not  added — With  befitting,  reverential,  rightly- 
ordered  words?  No,  God  does  not  oppress  us  with  His  majesty, 
He  not  so  much  marks  the  words  as  the  heart,  and  understands 
eveiything,  however  unskilfidly  we  may  frame  our  request.  But 
shoidd  we  not  add — With  earnest  vows  touchino;  the  riolit  use 
of  His  gifts,  with  pledges  of  a  future  gratitude  ?  Brethren,  if 
this  were  requisite,  then  would  no  man  receive  anything  from 
God.  Thus,  in  fact,  one  thing  alone  is  necessary  :  "  Let  him 
ask  in  faith,  in  confident  expectation,  that  I  will  to  hear  and  will 
give!"  That  is,  indeed,  giving  with  simplicity  !  O  that  every 
one  who  knows  this  could  thus  ask  in  faith,  and  icithout  doubt- 
ing !  Faith  is  a  certain  assurance,  in  which  man  does  not  doubt. 
What  reason  is  there  for  doubting  ?    Here  is  the  invitation  of 


238  ASKING  FOn  WISDOM. 

Hiiu  who  is  Truth  to  every  man.  His  promising  word  is  a 
pledge  and  direction  which  will  never  fail  him  who  reminds  the 
Lord  of  His  word — Seeh  ye  My  face.  If  ye  have  faith  and 
doubt  not — saith  om'  Lord — it  shall  be  done  according  to  your 
word.  All  things  whatsoever  ye  shall  ask  in  prayer,  believing, 
ye  sliall  receive  (]\Iatt.  xxi.  21,  22)  ;  and  all  those  gifts  which  we 
already  enjoy  are  so  many  proofs  and  pledges  of  the  freeness 
with  which  God  giveth  everj-thing.  He  giveth  like  a  father — 
should  we  not  also  ask  as  children  ?  Childlike  faith  makes 
not  many  words,  which  often  spring  from  a  kind  of  doubt,  and 
would  bring  something  as  an  equivalent ;  which,  at  least,  are 
not  simple  asldng  for  His  simple  gift.  Simple,  childlike  faith 
in  prayer  consists  not  in  high  devotion  and  warm  feeling ;  it  is 
nothing  but  believing  and  not  doubting  from  the  bottom  of  the 
heart.  But  how  this  is,  we,  alas  !  know  less  by  sure  experience 
than  by  its  opposite — the  unhappy  state  of  the  doubter. 

.Of  this  St  James  mournfully  speaks,  after  his  Avord  of 
encom^agement.  He  that  doubteth  is  like  a  wave  of  the  sea, 
di'iven  of  the  -wind  and  tossed.  The  wind  m-ges  the  wave  from 
withoiTt,  and  it  is  urged  from  within  and  below  by  its  own  ever- 
restless  nature  :  so  the  doubting  heart,  in  its  distraction  between 
prayer  and  its  own  restless  thoughts,  which  will  never  suffer  the 
Give  me  !  to  reach  the  full  energy  of  simple  asking.  A  doubt- 
ing petitioner  offers  not  to  God  a  steady  hand  or  heart ;  so  that 
lie  cannot  deposit  in  it  His  gift : — that  is  the  first  reasoii.  And 
the  second  is  obviously  this  : — The  great  God  will  not  give  to 
those  who  dishonour  Him  with  doubts  before  His  face.  Let 
not  such  a  man  think  that  he  will  receive  anything  from  the 
Lord  !  For  that  honour,  at  least,  the  rich  Giver  will  have  from 
us — that  we  confide  in  the  love  to  which  we  make  our  appeal. 
To  faith  applies  in  its  fullest  sense  His  own  word — Them  that 
honour  Me,  I  will  honour !  as  to  unbelief  applies  that  other 
word — They  that  despise  Me  shall  be  lightly  esteemed  !  (1  Sam. 
ii.  30).  Finally,  St  James  adds  a  third  ground  :  Even  if  God, 
forgiving  the  doubt,  should  give,  in  the  superabundance  of  His 
love,  anything  to  such  a  man,  it  would  be  to  him  as  good  as 
not  given,  for  he  would  not  retain  and  improve  that  which  he 
receives.  For  a  doubter,  properly  a  tvavering-minded,  divided, 
double-spirited  man,  is  unsteady  in  all  his  ways.  To  him  ap])lies 
the  rough  word  of  the  son  of  Sirach  :  "  The  inner  parts  of  a  fool 


JAMES  I.  9-12.  i.'oU 

are  like  a  broken  vessel,  and  lie  will  hold  no  knowledge  as  long 
as  lie  liveth"  (Ecclus.  xxi.  14).  What  is  obtained  in  and 
through  doubt  is  lost  in  doubt ;  but  from  faith  to  faith  is  the 
rule  of  the  true  recei^^ng  and  stedfast  holding  fast  of  gi'ace. 

Does,  then,  this  severe  conclusion  take  away  again  all  the 
consolation  of  the  gracious  promise  ?  God  forbid  !  We  should 
not  give  up  all  asking  in  despair,  because  s.ome  doubt  still 
adheres  to  our  petition.  St  James  manifestly  speaks  only  of  a 
predominant  believing  or  doubting,  which  rules  the  soul :  if 
only  our  faith,  which  asks,  doubt  not,  the  weak  heart  may 
have  many  assaults  which  disparage  not  the  reality  of  that  faith. 
Our  faithfid  Father  demands  not  of  His  children  perfection, 
before  they  have  in  the  way  of  prayer  pressed  onward  to  it.  He 
not  merely  hears  strong  faith  ;  all  actual  beheving  avails  as  such 
before  Him,  Begin  therefore  boldly,  and  go  on  with  greater 
boldness,  to  pray  thyself  into  perfect  faith  ;  let  thy  little  measure 
of  faith  withstand  thy  doubt,  and  pray  against  its  being  reckoned 
as  thine.  This  is  the  art  of  believing  supplication,  which  we 
must  learn  by  perpetual  practice.  Thus,  then,  let  us  ask  of  God 
all  that  is  lacking  to  us  ;  especially  wisdom,  and  that  msdom 
w^hich  trials  require.  Then  shall  we  more  and  more  abundantly 
obtain  that  which  will  create  pure  joy. 

III. 

THE  REJOICESTG  OF  THE  LOWLY  AND  THE  EXALTED. 

(Ch.  i.  9-12.) 

But  let  the  brother  of  low  degree  glory  in  his  exaltation :  but  the  rich,  in 
that  he  is  made  low :  because  as  the  flower  of  the  grass  he  shall  pass 
away.  For  the  sun  is  no  sooner  risen  with  a  burning  heat,  but  it  withereth 
the  grass,  and  the  flower  thereof  falleth,  and  the  gi'ace  of  the  fashion  of 
it  perisheth  :  so  also  shall  the  rich  man  fade  away  in  his  ways.  Blessed 
is  the  man  that  endureth  temptation :  for  when  he  is  tried,  he  shall 
receive  the  crown  of  life,  which  the  Lord  hath  promised  to  them  that 
love  Him. 

If  we  sought  to  do  justice  to  every  sentence  and  word  of 
this  Epistle  we  should  be  for  ever  beginning  anew,  and  even 
then  should  not  exhaust  the  fulness  of  any  one  of  them.  How 
might  we  preach  on  that  single  ^^  all  joy  V^  which  resounds  in 


240     THE  REJOICING  OF  THE  LOWLY  AND  THE  EXALTED. 

the  midst  of  our  tribulation  !  What  an  amazing  word  is  that 
connected  with  it —  Count  it  pure  joy  when  we  fall  into  tempta- 
tions !  That  is  the  work  of  faith,  the  saiiie  faith  by  which, 
anticipatmg  the  future,  we  already  reckon  ourselves  dead  to  sin 
and  alive  to  God  (Rom.  vi.  11).  Further,  patience  must  hold 
fast  its  work,  and  accomplish  it  as  a  perfect  work;  thus  the 
truly  fundamental  work  is  patience  and  waiting,  by  which  alone 
we  become  perfect  and  entire.  How  much  might  be  said  upon 
this  point  too  !  Similarly,  we  have  not  done  full  justice  to  the 
paragraph  vers.  6-8  ;  for  St  James  speaks  very  significantly 
concerning  doubting,  progressively  indicating  two  meanings 
of  the  word :  first,  the  doubting  in  asking  simply ;  and  then 
doubting  as  a  permanent  condition  or  character  of  a  man's  life 
and  walk.  Of  the  former,  he  begins  by  saying :  He  that 
doubteth,  even  in  this  individual  supplication — so  that  doubt^ 
triumphs  over  the  faith,  instead  of  faith  triumpliing  over  the 
doubt — will  not  at  least  in  this  petition  receive  anything.  For, 
the  petitioner  who  would  receive  must  be  calm  before  God, 
not  driven  hither  and  thither  like  a  wave  of  the  sea.  He  then 
strengthens  this,  and  passes  over  to  the  second  meaning :  Let 
not  that  man,  who  shows  himself  thus  a  doubter  before  God, 
think  that  he  shall  receive  anything ;  that  is,  on  account  of  his 
prayer,  which  was  in  reality  no  prayer,  and  as  such  could  not 
be  granted.  Else,  indeed,  how  much  do  we  all  receive  from  the 
Lord  without  our  prayer,  not  only  in  earthly,  but  also  heavenly 
gifts  !  For,  how  otherwise  could  we  ever  extricate  ourselves 
from  the  tribulation  and  sorrow  of  our  evil  unbelieving  heart  ? 
Faith,  awakened  by  prevenient  gifts,  says.  This  was  of  thy 
giving,  O  Lord!  and  thus  learns  to  ask  for  more.  But, 
finally,  St  James  speaks  of  a  man,  who,  instead  of  being  a 
man  in  the  energy  and  courage  of  faith,  continually  gives  up 
half  his  heart  to  doubt ;  and  the  half-hearted  faith,  which  he 
thinks  he  has,  is  therefore  none,  and  comes  to  nothing.  ■  All 
the  resvilt  in  this  case  is  a  perpetual  wavering  and  vacillation  in 
his  variable  and  distracted  w«y.  This  would  fiirnish  matter  for 
a  specific  meditation;  bvit  that  ^^'e  must  leave  to  those  who  would 
prosecute  the  subject,  lest  it  should  too  long  inteiTupt  the  con- 
nection of  the  Epistle.  Lot  us  now  consider  how  the  demand 
to  ask  is  followed  immediately  by  a  challenge  to  glorying. 

Obviously  the  same  is  meant  that  is  written  elsewhere,  Let 


JAMES  I.  9-12.  241 

him  that  glorieth  glory  in  the  Lord  !  (1  Cor.  i.  31).  St  James 
expressly  directs  his  word  against  all  false  boasting  ;  for,  when 
he  speaks  of  the  exaltation  of  the  lowly,  and  the  humiliation  of 
the  rich,  he  makes  all  stand  on  the  same  level  before  God, 
who  alone  exalts  and  lays  low.  He  that  asks  of  God  in  faith 
shall  receive  !  This  had  preceded,  and  accordingly  one  might 
expect  to  hear — Let  him,  then,  to  whom  it  hath  been  given,  so 
that  he  has  become  rich  in  gifts  and  graces,  not  glory;  but  the 
word  takes  the  opposite  turn — But  let  the  brother  who  is  low 
rejoice  in  his  exaltation  !  The  Wc/t,  on  the  other  hand,  receives 
the  direction,  as  warning  rather  than  encom'agement.  Let  him 
rejoice  in  his  being  made  loio  !  And,  because  this  is  the  more 
striking,  let  us  take  our  start  from  it  rather  than  the  former. 

Are  we  to  understand  that  St  James  means  the  rich  in  the 
ordinary,  external  meaning  of  the  word  ?  Doubtless  he  thinks 
first  of  all  of  them,  as  the  continuation  of  the  discourse,  com- 
pared with  other  passages  in  it  which  have  to  do  with  the  rich 
of  this  world,  shows  :  ch.  ii.  6,  7,  v.  1-5.  Particularly  in  that 
last  closing  passage  he  predicts,  as  here  in  the  beginning,  though 
much  more  keenly,  the  passing  away,  and  rusting,  and  perish- 
ing of  all  their  possessions.  There  is  no  ground,  therefore, 
of  boasting  in  them:  Let  not  the  lich  man  glory  in  his  riches! 
(Jer.  ix,  23).  Those  who  put  their  trust  in  their  riches  are 
told  in  the  forty-ninth  Psalm,  that  as  man  abideth  not  in  his 
honour,  but  must  leave  his  wealth  to  others,  while  his  own  soul 
is  not  redeemed,  he  is  like  the  beast  which  perisheth — unless 
he  have  that  wisdom  and  understanding  which  God  would 
impart  to  both  low  and  high,  rich  and  poor  together.  "  As  the 
flower  of  the  grass  he  shall  pass  away.  For  the  sun  is  no  sooner 
risen  with  a  burning  heat,  but  it  withereth  the  grass,  and  the 
flower  thereof  falleth,  and  the  grace  of  the  fashion  of  it 
perislieth!"  How  often  is  this  the  case  during  the  course  of 
the  rich  man's  life ;  how  certain  is  it  in  the  end  !  For  all  flesh 
is  as  grass,  and  all  the  glory  of  man  as  the  flower  of  grass 
(1  Pet.  i.  24).  Boast  not  thyself  then,  O  rich  man!  Thou 
art  set  in  slippery  places  (Ps.  Ixxiii.  18).  In  the  midst  of  thy 
business  (this  is  St  James'  word)  thou  shalt  fade  away  :  while 
forming  thy  plans  in  this  or  that  place  to  buy  and  sell,  thy  life 
will  vanish  !  (ch.  iv.  13,  14).  But  of  such  rich  men  St  James 
is  not  here  speaking;  he  refers  assuredly  to  a  brother  who  is  rich 

Q 


242    THE  REJOICING  OF  THE  LOWLY  AND  THE  EXALTED. 

—  only  to  sucli  can  lie  attribute  a  boasting  or  rejoicing.  And 
what  rejoicing?  Let  the  brother  that  is  rich  rejoice  that  he 
is  made  low  I  Mark  that  well !  Rejoice  in  this,  that  thou 
knowest  the  Lord,  who  dealeth  in  mercy  upon  earth,  and  giveth 
grace  to  the  humble ;  that  thou  hast  seen  the  danger,  and 
escaped  the  snare  of  riches,  and  art  no  longer  a  camel  too 
large  for  the  needle's  eye  ;  that  thou  hast  found  security 
against  destruction,  and  a  better  hope  than  fleeting  riches  can 
afford.  It  is  the  curse  of  all  whom  the  old  serpent  deceives  to 
go  upon  the  earth  like  him,  and  like  him  to  eat  the  dust.  Re- 
joice that  thou  hast  learned  this ;  rejoice  in  thy  lowliness  before 
God  as  a  spiritually  poor  man,  who  is  not  wanting  in  His 
spiritual  gifts  ;  so  that,  as  a  brother  of  the  poor,  thou  art  also  an 
inheritor  of  the  kingdom,  and  rich  in  God  ! 

Does  St  James'  word  further  mean,  only  taking  the  external 
riches  as  a  figure,  a  spiritually/  rich  man  too  ?  This  we  may 
certainly  assume,  but  it  must  be  rightly  understood.  He  can- 
not refer  to  the  Pharisee,  who  flatters  himself  in  the  riches  and 
virtues  of  his  own  possession  ;  for  he  is  not  a  brother,  and  in  no 
sense  made  low,  has  no  lowliness  in  which  he  may  rejoice.  He 
means  the  Christian  who  is  a  true  believer  and  has  received 
grace  ;  and  distinctively  such  a  believer  as  is  already  beyond 
others  rich  in  gifts.  And  to  him  he  warningly  says,  Rejoice 
not  as  a  wise  man  in  thy  wisdom,  as  a  strong  man  in  thy 
strength,  as  a  rich  man  in  thy  riches;  rejoice  rather  in  the 
Lord,  of  whose  mercy  and  grace  all  this  comes,  as  a  brother  of 
the  blessed  who  glorify  God  in  all  His  gifts.  Fantiy  not  that 
thou  hast  securely  thine  own  what  has  been  given  thee  ;  think 
not  thyself  merely  in  thy  wisdom  a  teachel*  of  others,  and  in 
thy  fulness  a  giver  to  others  ,  forget  not  thyself  continually 
anew  to  seek  grace  for  grace.  Otherwise  thou  rejoicest  in  thy 
own  pride,  and  all  such  rejoicing  is  evil  (ch.  iv.  16).  Other- 
wise, in  the  heat  of  temptation,  even  thy  spiritual  branch  will 
fade  away ;  all  will  be  again  taken  from  thee  ;  and  thou  thyself 
mayest  perish  in  thy  pride.  Take  David's  humility  before  the 
ark  of  the  covenant  as  thy  pattern,  Avho  said  to  Saul's  proud 
daughter  :  "  Before  the  Lord,  who  chose  me  before  thy  father, 
will  I  play  and  rejoice ;  and  I  will  yet  be  more  vile  than  thus, 
and  will  be  base  in  mine  own  sight ;  and  of  the  maid-servants 
which  thou  hast  scorned  will  I  be  had  in  honoau'!"  (2  Sam.  vi. 


JAIVIES  I.  9-12.  243 

20,  21).  Note  well  what  is  still  lacking  in  thy  spiritual  riches  ; 
and  learn  to  rejoice  most  gladly  in  thine  infirmities,  that  the 
power  of  Christ  may  dwell  in  thee  (2  Cor.  xii.  9).  Then  alone 
Avilt  thou  be  able  safely  to  say  with  the  same  Apostle,  I  can  be 
high  and  abound  without  loss  to  my  abasement  (Phil.  iv.  12). 
Then  wilt  thou  say  with  the  Psalmist,  "  Lord,  my  heart  is  not 
haughty,  nor  mine  eyes  lofty ;  neither  do  I  exercise  myself  in 
great  matters,  or  in  things  too  high  for  me"  (Ps.  cxxxi.  1). 
But  let  the  brother  who  has  been  rich,  and  has  not  retained  his 
lowliness  of  heart,  take  shame  to  himself  instead  of  rejoicing ; 
let  him  abase  himself,  and  be  clothed  again  with  humihty!  For 
God  resisteth  the  proud,  while  He  giveth  grace  to  the  humble. 
Therefore  the  exhortation  still  is — Humble  yourselves  under  the 
hand  of  God,  and  He  will  exalt  you  (Jas.  iv.  6-10 ;  1  Pet.  v. 
5,  6).  This  makes  the  high  and  the  rich  the  same  as  the  low 
and  the  poor ;  and  so  must  it  be  in  the  presence  of  the  Lord. 

But  let  the  brother  who  is  low  rejoice  in  that  he  is  exalted  ! 
This  we  shall  now  understand  aright,  and  no  longer  think  of 
false  self-exaltation.  Those  who  humble  themselves  will  God 
exalt  in  due  time.  And  this  time  is  for  faith  already  come. 
This  word  low  is  certainly  meant  by  St  James  in  the  spiritual 
sense ;  he  intends  it  for  consolation,  because  he  has  so  sharply 
distinguished  between  faith  and  doubt  that  many  a  poor,  weak 
brother  might  be  made  anxious  by  his  words.  Is  thy  faith  yet 
weak  ?  Is  this  among  the  hardest  of  thy  trials,  that  thou  art 
still  inwardly  assaulted  by  unbelief  and  doubt  *?  that  thou  art 
not  as  rich  in  the  prayed-for  wisdom  and  patience  as  thou  fain 
wouldst  be  ?  Nevertheless,  if  thou  hast  any  faith  at  all,  let  it 
inspire  thee  with  a  cheerful  courage ;  for  to  the  poor,  who  as 
yet  have  nothing,  is  promised  all  things  ;  they  shall  assuredly 
receive  all  they  need,  if  they  mourn  over  sin,  and  hunger  and 
thirst  after  righteousness.  Blessed  is  that  glorying  which  rises 
out  of  deep  lowliness  into  the  exaltation  of  God  :  I  may  and  I 
can  ask  and  receive ;  whkt  my  faith  hopes  to  receive  it  hath 
already;  I  am  poor  in  myself,  but  rich  in  God! — And  art  thou 
in  this  state  of  mind  poor  and  lowly  in  external  things  ?  Thou 
art  nevertheless  a  brother ;  and  every  rich  man  who,  from  a 
false  respect  of  persons,  fails  to  recognise  thee  as  such,  will  be 
liable  to  condemnation  for  that.  Be  not  anxious,  as  if  thy 
God,  who  giveth  thee  the  kingdom,  could  neglect  or  forsake 


244     THE  REJOICING  OF  THE  LOWLY  AND  THE  EXALTED. 

tliee.  If  thou  hast  chosen  at  the  feet  of  Jesus  the  better  part, 
it  shall  never  be  taken  from  thee  throughout  eternity.  O  how 
high  and  glorious  is  thy  inheritance  !  Continue  only  to  ask  for 
the  enlightenment  of  the  eyes  of  tliine  understanding,  that  thou 
mayest  know  what  is  the  hope  of  thy  calling,  what  the  glorious 
riches  of  His  inheritance  in  the  saints,  and  what  the  exceeding- 
greatness  of  His  power  in  thee,  who  believest!  (Eph.  i.  18,  19). 
Brethren,  can  ye  all  thus  in  your  lowliness  rejoice  in  being 
exalted"? — Alas!  St  James,  with  all  his  graciousness,  sets  before 
us  a  very  hard  problem ;  it  is  not  so  easy  to  reach  this  end, 
which  is  itself  the  very  simplicity  of  faith,  looking  solely  and 
undistractedly  at  grace  and  the  goal  of  it.  We  should  all  con- 
template this  from  the  weakest  beginning  of  our  faith  ;  and  go 
on  to  learn  more  and  more  how  to  make  this  our  sole  glorying. 
But  such  lowly  ones  we  become,  and  such  glorying  we  can 
rejoice  in,  when  God  not  only  humbles  us  by  His  Holy  Spirit, 
that  He  may  exalt  us,  but  also  lays  His  mighty  hand  upon  us  in 
trials.  Therefore  St  James  speaks  at  once  of  this  latter  ;  and 
thus  returns  back  again  to  his  first  topic. 

As  certainly  as  the  faithful  God,  the  God  of  all  grace,  who 
hath  called  us  to  His  eternal  glory,  will  pi'epare  us  fully  for 
that  glory,  so  certainly  does  He  make  it  necessary  that  we 
should  suffer  a  while  (1  Pet.  v.  10).  Woe,  and  nothing  but 
woe,  upon  the  guilty  head  of  the  man  whose  own  fault  it  is 
that  he  is  double-minded  and  unstable  in  all  his  ways !  But 
blessed  is  the  man  who  endureth  temptation,  who  abides  the  test, 
and  who  is  confirmed  as  a  man  of  strong  faith  by  the  obedience 
of  suffering !  We  must  all,  well  or  ill,  experience  chastisement, 
for  God  dealeth  with  us  all  as  with  children  (Heb.  xii.  7). 
Therefore  St  James  comprehends  all  the  manifold  temptations 
in  one  ;  speaks  of  the  trial  as  the  certain  portion  of  every  one, 
and  already  his  portion,  during  the  earthly  probationship.  God 
draws  His  children  in  mass  towards  the  heavenly  inheritance, 
humbling  and  purifying  them  to  that  end  ;  He  measm'es  out  to 
each  the  trial  which  with  the  supreme  wisdom  of  love  has  been 
appointed  to  him,  while  to  all  is  measured  out,  according  to 
their  ability  and  vocation,  the  equal  temptation,  in  perfect  right- 
eousness. Especially  let  every  rich  and  exalted  man  know 
this,  and  understand,  and  make  good  use  of  his  own  !  If  in  the 
bui'uing  heat  his  godliness  passes  away,  so  that  he  may  think 


JAMES  I.  9-12.  245 

himself  rejected,  even  that  may  turn  to  his  salvation.  If  he 
mark  before  it  is  too  late  that  one  tlnufx.  had  been  lacking;  to 
him,  because  he  was  not  willing  to  sell  all  that  he  had ;  if  he 
surrenders  himself  into  the  hands  of  God,  and  submits  to  the 
spoiling  of  his  goods,. and  learns  the  discipleship  of  the  cross 
— blessed  is  that  man !  This  is  a  better  glorying  than  the 
former.  The  blind,  proud  world  gives  the  name  of  man  to 
him  who  proudly  defies  suffering,  who  relaxes  not  his  false, 
hard  courage  ;  but  "  the  patient  in  spirit  is  better  than  the 
proud  in  spirit"  (Eccles.  vii.  8),  and  the  true  patience  of  faith, 
which  is  found  in  the  deepest  humility  before  God,  alone  brings 
a  good  end.  Woe  to  the  man  who  will  not  become  of  a  lowly 
heart  when  God  in  fidelity  humbles  him  ;  who  will  not  become 
subject  to  the  Father  of  spirits,  that  the  fatherly  chastisement 
may  do  him  good  !  Trial  comes  to  us  all ;  but  it  is  the  right 
deportment  in  trial,  the  enduring,  which  alone  brings  the  final 
confirmation  of  faith.  And  again,  thou  canst  not  be  a  crowned 
victor  until  afte?'  thou  hast  been  thus  tested  and  a2)proved.  It 
is  but  a  short  period  of  conflict ;  the  one  test,  after  which  there 
is  no  probation,  but  thou  slialt  receive  the  inheritance  incor- 
ruptible, undefiled,  and  that  passeth  not  away.  When  it  is 
said — Blessed  is  the  man  !  that  is  an  abiding  and  effectual 
glorying.  But  do  not  rejoice  too  soon;  death  will  perhaps  bring 
to  thee  a  last  trial,  and  it  will  depend  upon  that.  Arm  thyself 
vvell  through  patience  against  that;  exercise  thyself  well  in  that 
faith  which  presei'ves  its  confidence  in  the  jyromise  of  eternal 
truth,  the  fidelity  of  which  is  the  prop  of  our  hope.  If  we  hold 
fast  the  confidence  and  rejoicing  of  hope  firm  unto  the  end!, 
(Heb.  iii.  6).  All  true  glorying,  which  maketh  not  ashamed,  is 
the  glorying  of  hope  ;  all  hope  refers  to  the  future  glory,  which 
God  will  give  (Rom.  v.  2):  He  will  give  it  to  those  to  whom  He 
has  promised  it :  to  those  who  love  Him.  This  is,  finally,  the 
inmost  strength  and  \dctorious  energy  of  faith  in  patience,  not 
to  be  separated  from  the  love  of  God,  to  yield  ourselves  up  so 
fully  to  that  love  that  it  may  be  perfectly  shed  abroad  in  us  unto 
a  perfect  love  in  return  ;  that  we  learn  at  last  to  merge  all  in 
this  one  tribute  of  glory  to  Him  —  Thou  hast  loved  us,  and 
washed  us  from  oui'  sins !  Therefoi'e,  let  us  7iot  love  the  world, 
but  the  Father;  not  love  our  own  life  unto  death;  but  count  all 
things  pure  joy  which  may  help  to  win  our  love  from  ourselves, 


246  THE  ORIGIN  AND  END  OF  EVIL. 

and  fix  it  upon  Him  who  hath  loved  us :  so  shall  we  receive  the 
crown  of  life  ! 


IV. 

THE  ORIGIN  AND  END  OP  EVIL. 

(Ch.  i.  13-15.) 

Let  no  man  say,  when  he  is  tempted,  I  am  tempted  of  God  :  for  God  cannot 
be  tempted  with  evil,  neither  tempteth  He  any  man  :  but  every  man  is 
tempted,  when  he  is  drawn  away  of  his  own  lust,  and  enticed.  Then, 
when  lust  hath  conceived,  it  bringeth  forth  sin  ;  and  sin,  when  it  is 
finished,  bringeth  forth  death. 

St  James  has  spoken  of  manifold  trials,  and  then  of  the 
one  great  trial  of  the  whole  of  life,  in  which  fidelity  is  to  be 
confirmed  to  the  end.  The  word  in  the  original  is  the  same 
Avith  our  "  temptation^^  and  there  is  a  strict  connection  between 
the  two  :  every  trial  tempts  me  in  such  a  manner  that  I  may 
fall  in  it,  apd  fail  to  be  approved,  and  lose  again  the  crown  of 
which  I  thought  myself  sure  ;  on  the  other  hand,  every  tempta- 
tion may,  as  a  trial,  be  endured  and  victoriously  overcome. 
Nevertheless,  there  remains  a  great  difference  between  these  two 
aspects  of  the  same  thing,  a  difference  which  our  Epistle  now 
begins  to  disclose,  in  order  to  obviate  all  misconception,  and  at  the 
same  time  to  exhibit  the  first  firm  fundamental  principles  of  that 
wisdom  which  had  been  previously  spoken  of.  That  there  is  a 
necessity  for  our  all  being  tested  and  approved  through  trial, 
sjDrings  from  our  sin ;  the  tempting  element  in  om-  trial,  the 
evil  in  it,  springs  therefore  from  that,  and  not  from  God.  The 
important  point  here  is  rightly  to  know  and  distinguish  between 
sin  and  grace,  evil  and  good.  The  suffering  of  trial  itself  leads  us 
deeper  and  deeper  into  the  living  experience  of  this  distinction  ; 
yet  we  should  know  that  distinction  beforehand,  in  order  not 
to  be  led  astray.  Therefore  St  James  proceeds  to  speak  of  this ; 
and  testifies  that  evil,  or  even  tendency  to  evil,  comes  by  no 
means  from  God,  the  Giver  of  every  good  gift,  the  Father  of 
light.  As  to  this  most  important  fundamental  truth  he  cries  in 
affectionate  warning  :  Do  not  err,  my  beloved  brethren  !  His 
words  concerning  evil  and  concerning  good,  vers.  13-18,  are 


JAMES  I.  13-15.  247 

strictly  connected  ;  but  let  us  first  consider  liow  he  here  teaches 
us  the  most  essential  and  inmost  origin  and  the  final  end  of  evil. 

The  origin  of  evil  is  absolutely  and  assuredly  not  of  God! 
That  philosophy  which  will  not  accept  the  doctrine  of  the  Fall  in 
Scripture  tends  to  make  its  so-called  God  the  Father  of  darkness 
as  well  as  of  light.  But  there  are  many  who  know  not  tliat  philo- 
sophy, who  can  scarcely  understand  it  when  proposed  to  them, 
who  have  no  other  answer  for  the  question,  Whence  come  the 
tares  ?  but,  An  enemy  hath  done  this !  and  yet  err,  and  need  the 
earnest  warning,  necessary  to  us  all — Let  no  man  say,  when  he 
is  tempted,  that  he  is  tempted  of  God !  That  is,  tempted  to 
evil ;  for  God  tempts  us  to  good  for  ever.  But  we  all  do  say 
so  naturally ;  it  is  the  deep-rooted  delusion  of  our  pride.  The 
natural  man  stiff-neckedly  strives  in  every  way  to  justify  him- 
self, that  is,  in  the  end  to  lay  the  fault  upon  God  ;  even  as  the 
pleas  of  the  "  man'*  throughout  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  con- 
tinue down  to  the  last — Why  doth  He  then  find  fault  ?  Who 
can  withstand  His  will?  (Rom.  ix.  10).  Even  in  Paradise  the 
deceitfulness  of  the  first  sin  at  once  so  far  obscured  the  per- 
ception of  God,  that  the  fallen  pair  hide  themselves  from  their 
Creator,  and  would  excuse  themselves  before  their  Judee. 
Adam  said — "  The  woman  whom  Thou  gavest  me ;"  that  is, 
"  Thou  Thyself  art  the  cause  of  my  sin  !"  Eve  said — "  The 
serpent ;"  that  is,  again,  "  That  which  came  from  Thyself,  and 
not  from  us  !  Wherefore  didst  Thou  make  it,  or  leave  it  in 
our  Paradise  ? "  Alas!  since  then  all  their  descendants  have 
done  the  same  :  every  man,  from  whom  this  vain  imagination  is 
not  thoroughly  eradicated,  rests  at  least  unconsciously  upon  this 
secret  pillow  of  evil  excuse,  which  God  at  last  appeals  against 
and  condemns. 

So  speak  the  tempted,  if  not  with  their  lips,  yet  in  their 
hearts ;  instead  of  learning,  in  the  patience  of  approved  faith, 
that  the  trial  will,  in  God's  purpose  and  will,  tend  to  salvation. 
If  that  end  is  not  attained  in  the  case  of  many,  who  fall  in  the 
trial — that  was  not  of  God !  The  sincere  should  in  faith 
firmly  hold  fast  the  conviction  that  God  is  faithful,  who  will 
not  suffer  them  to  be  tempted  above  what  they  are  able,  but 
with  the  temptation  open  a  way  of  escape,  that  they  may  be 
able  to  bear  it  (1  Cor.  x.  13).  And  Avhen  it  seems  to  go  be- 
yond human  ability  to  bear,  even  then  God  imparts  with  the 


248  THE  ORIGIN  AND  END  OF  EVIL. 

test  the  power  also  to  sustain  it,  through  His  own  abihty.  This 
He  does  assuredly  always  and  everywhere;  this  will  the  approved 
in  temptation  one  day  exhibit  to  the  lost  in  their  own  experience. 

Thus  thy  sin  is  not  through  fault  in  God,  or  to  be  attributed 
to  His  wall.  As  He  Himself  is  in  His  purity  urdemptahle  of 
evil  (this  is  St  James'  word),  so  also  He  tempts  no  man  thus, 
that  is,  that  he  should  or  must  will  or  act  evil,  commit  sin  and 
fall.  Yet  those  who  are  led  into  error  say  thus  :  all  their  ex- 
cuses amount  to  this  in  the  end — Eelations  and  circumstances 
were  so  adverse ;  others  allured  and  deceived  me ;  these  or  those 
things,  these  or  those  persons,  were  in  fault.  And  what  is  this 
but  a  repetition  of  our  progenitors'  words  to  God — Thou  Thy- 
self didst  order,  permit,  and  ordain  it  thus !  Hear,  on  the  con- 
trary, the  wisdom  of  the  son  of  Sirach :  "  Say  not  thou.  It  is 
through  the  Lord  that  I  fell  away  :  for  thou  oughtest  not  to  do 
the  things  that  He  hatetli.  Say  not  thou.  He  hath  caused  me 
to  err:  for  He  hath  no  need  of  the  sinful  man"  (Ecclus.  xv. 
11,  12).  Probably,  those  who  mislead  thee  would  retort,  and 
lay  thy  guilt  upon  thine  own  ready  sympathy  and  complicity 
with  their  sin  ;  or  the  misleader,  whom  thou  blamest,  might 
with  perfect  right  say — If  there  had  been  in  thee  no  tinder  for 
my  spark,  it  would  not  have  set  thee  on  fire  !  The  heart  and  will 
of  a  man  (in  which  alone  sin  can  be  found)  is  as  a  fast  fortress, 
which  no  enemy  from  without  can  subdue,  if  no  traitor  within 
opens  its  gates.  How  many  there  are  who  make  that  sure 
enough  in  regard  to  some  things  in  which  they  will  not  be  over- 
come; they  can  say.  This  I  will  not  do!  Why  not,  therefore,  in 
regard  to  the  seduction  to  sin,  into  which  thou  shouldst  not  enter? 

That  is  most  true,  say  or  think  these  sinners ;  but  what  can  I 
do  in  the  weakness  of  my  sinful  nature,  in  \\xq  flesh  with  which  I 
was  born,  in  my  inherited  tendency  to  sin  ?  Many  boldly  hold 
to  this,  and  in  one  way  or  another  press  their  claim  for  justi- 
fication. Either  they  say — Why  does  He  demand  a  holiness 
f ror3  us,  which  is  impossible  to  our  ruined  nature  ?  Or,  on  the 
other  side — We  have  a  good  intention,  and  all  our  sinning  is  only 
weakness  and  not  sin  !  Such  wicked  sophistry  adheres  secretly 
to  us  all,  and,  thus  exhibited,  is  precisely  like  the  word  of  Adam  — 
The  woman  whom  Thou  gavest  me  as  a  companion  !  Oiu'  flesh, 
our  weakness,  has  become  to  us  in  reality  as  necessary  and  as  dear 
as  to  him  Eve,  when  what  she  gave  him  he  ate— and  accord 


JAMES  I.  13-15.  2-i9 

ingly  laid  to  her  tlic  sin  of  all !  But  God  gave  her  to  him  as  a 
help-meet,  and  not  as  a  seducer  ;  that  she  became  the  latter  was 
neither  the  act  of  God's  creation  nor  His  will.  So  with  all 
upon  which  we  would  throw  the  guilt  of  our  own  sin,  from  the 
heaviest  temptation  and  the  most  urgent  seduction  doAvn  to  the 
seducer  within  ourselves,  God  made  it  not  for  temptation.  He 
did  indeed  create  Adam  m  such  a  manner  that  even  in  Paradise 
test  through  commandment  was  needful  and  salutary ;  but  he 
might  as  certainly  have  stood  in  the  test  as  he  actually  fell  in  it. 

The  commandment  or  the  prohibition  was  not  in  fault,  as 
if  he  might  have  been  able  to  say — Wherefore  hast  Thou  then 
forbidden  this  one  tree  1  or,  Wherefore  didst  Thou  not  hedge 
it  round  with  terrors  of  death  "l^  as  if  the  eating  of  the  tree 
was  the  sin,  and  not  the  lust  to  eat  thereof !  as  if  the  freedom 
of  the  created  spirit  and  will  might  not  be  subjected  to  the  holy 
law  of  obedience  towards  the  Creator,  even  as  it  contradicted 
that  law !  Our  sin  is  not  occasioned  and  rendered  sinful  by  the 
law,  which  God  should  rather  not  have  imposed  upon  us ;  nor 
by  the  devU,  whose  seduction  may  have  laid  force  upon  our  wills, 
or  could  have  done  so.  The  law  is  not  sin,  but  is  holy ;  His 
commandment  is  holy,  jvist,  and  good.  But  the  sin  which  al- 
ready exists  takes  occasion  by  the  commandment,  and  excites 
lust ;  it  is  by  the  commandment  made  known  and  manifest 
(Rom.  vii.  7-13).  The  devil — of  whose  fall  St  Jan\es  here  says 
nothing,  because  he  has  to  do  with  man's  lust  and  sin,  but  of 
whom  he  is  well  aware — is  a  seducer  indeed,  but  only  a  seducer ; 
and  all  who  have  fallen  under  his  temptation  into  evil  from  the 
beginning,  have  from  the  beginning  received  the  word — "  Sub- 
mit yourselves  unto  God ;  resist  the  devil,  and  he  will  flee  from 
you"  (Jas.  iv.  7).  Eve  could  only  say— The  serpent  deceived 
me ;  not — The  serpent  compelled  me.  What  was  in  her  the 
temptation,  which  admitted  and  received  the  deception,  the  lie 
of  the  tempter  against  God's  word,  but  her  lust  f 

Every  man  is  tempted,  when  he  is  enticed  and  led  away  of 
his  oion  lust :  this  is  the  inmost  original  and  source  of  all  evil. 
Evil  is  for  ever — as  opposed  to  God — the  own  possession  of  the 
creature.     When  Satan  speaketh  a  lie,  he  speaketh  of  his  own 

^  As  in  2  Esdras  vii.  46  :  "  Tliis  is  my  first  and  last  saying,  that  it  had 
been  better  not  to  have  given  the  earth  nnto  Adam :  or  else,  when  it  was 
given  him,  to  have  restrained  him  from  sinning." 


250  THE  ORIGIN  AND  END  OF  EVIL. 

(John  viii.  44).  When  we  are  deceived  by  him,  it  is  through 
our  own  will,  and  our  own  lust.  Notlihig  from  without  can  bring 
sin  into  any  will.  It  was  not  the  tree  standing  before  her  eyes 
which  wrought  Eve  the  harm ;  she  might  have  beheld  it  in  the 
fear  of  obedience,  in  the  conviction  of  faith — that  it  would  be  evil 
to  eat  of  it,  and  therefore  that  it  was  not  a  tree  pleasant  to  the  eye. 
And  if  it  had  been  a  tree  of  poison.  He  who  placed  it  in  the 
garden,  with  the  deadly  superscription  over  it,  surely  did  not 
constrain  to  touch  it.  It  was  not  the  serpent  which  bewitched 
Eve,  as  men  say  that  the  glance  of  serpents  will  constrain  birds 
and  small  creatures  to  enter  their  jaws.  Our  mother  knew  well 
what  God  had  said,  and  might  have  adhered  to  it ;  as  the  little 
child  in  the  garden  may  answer  to  those  who  would  entice  it  to 
the  forbidden  tree — My  father  has  told  me  that  this  is  poison. 
But  she  believed  the  serpent,  disbelieving  God's  word,  and  in 
the  curiosity  of  pride !  So  in  every  sin  of  ours,  it  is  not  the 
enticement  of  any  object  or  of  any  word  from  without,  but  his 
own  lust,  of  which  any  man  is  tempted.  That  is,  any  man  among 
us  sinful  men ;  that  St  James  will  not  include  the  Eedeeiner  is 
obvious  of  itself.  Christ  was  indeed  for  us  all  the  Man  of  faith, 
approved  in  trial  and  temptation,  the  Captain  of  obedience ; 
but  His  being  tempted  was  without  sin  ;  in  His  unsinful  in- 
firmity the  strength  of  God  conquered  with  that  absolute  victory 
to  which  alone  the  crown  is  really  and  of  pui'e  right  due.  We 
who  are  conceived  of  sinful  seed  have  something  beyond  the 
weakness  which  adheres  to  being  born  of  woman. 

Nevertheless,  every  man's  own  lust,  though  his  own  from 
birth,  is  no  compulsion  to  him.  Although  eveiy  man  may  have 
in  a  still  more  specific  sense,  according  to  the  temperament  and 
inherited  tendency  of  his  body  and  soul,  his  oivn  lust,  he  him- 
self, who  finds  and  feels  it  in  his  nature,  is  not  one  with  it ; 
man's  lusts  are  not  like  the  instincts  of  animals.  St  James  says, 
and  rightly,  only  "  drawn  away  and  enticed^  Further,  let  it  be 
carefully  noted,  he  does  not  say  that  this  being  drawn  away  and 
enticed  is  itself  sin ;  but — is  tempted  to  sin ;  by  no  means — 
he  sinneth  /  IJe  only  lays  bare  the  source  from  which  afterwards 
sin  flows,  if  it  has  free  course,  and  if  the  lust  impregnated  by 
the  will  brings  forth.  In  the  lust,  which  is  now  our  o^\ti  to  us 
all,  so  that  we  must  all.  suffer  it,  is  our  Eve  as  it  were  exhibited ; 
if  Adam,  the  will  of  the  spirit,  instead  of  showing  himself  lord, 


JAMES  I.  13-15.  251 

succumbs  and  follows  her  bidding,  then  In  every  new  instance 
a  new  Fall  as  it  were  takes  place.  This  internal  consent  with 
the  lust  is  the  first  essential  sin.  If  God  said  to  Cain,  "  Let 
not  thy  desire  have  its  will,  but  thou  shalt  rule  over  it !"  when 
sin  nevertheless  was  already  at  the  door  of  his  evil  and  in- 
creasingly evil  heart, — how  much  more  applicable  will  be  the 
universal  commandment  to  every  one,  who  has  a  personal  lust 
of  his  o\Aai,  Thou  shalt  not  lust !  But  if  we  give  to  the  desire 
its  will,  or  rather  yield  up  our  will  to  it,  and  become  one  with 
it,  then  it  becomes  perfect  lust,  which  the  conceiving  desire  could 
thus  alone  bring  forth.  But  the  lust  of  the  will  is  alone  the  true 
and  proper  sin,  not  the  external  act,  before  which  in  evei*)^  case 
the  same  sin  has  been  accomplished  in  heart.  The  thief  must 
confess  with  Achan,  "  I  coveted  them  and  took  them"  (Josh, 
vii.  21),  The  adulterer  or  murderer  in  act  was  previously  such 
in  mind.  Wliat  if,  when  Eve  put  her  hand  forth  to  take  the 
fruit,  a  thunderbolt  from  God  had  struck  her  hand  back  ?  She 
would  nevertheless  have  accomplished  the  transgression ;  even 
as  Abraham,  on  the  other  hand,  had  accomplished  the  sacrifice 
of  his  son  when  he  stretched  out  his  hand  and  took  the  knife. 
If,  on  the  fall  of  Satan,  one  of  the  angels,  instead  of  crying  with 
]\lichael.  Who  is  like  God  ?  had  secretly  consented  and  said  in 
heart,  /  also  would !  he  would  thereby  have  been  an  angel  no 
longer,  but  a  devil.  Thus  there  is  with  us  the  secret  compla- 
cency with  others'  sins,  which  makes  us  partakers  of  their  guilt. 
They  have  pleasure  in  those  that  do  them,  saith  the  Apostle 
(Rom.  i.  32).  Yea,  verily,  there  are  many  who  are  secretly 
envious  at  others'  enjo^aiient  of  the  sin,  which  they  themselves 
denomice  in  judgment  and  rebuke;  their  denmi elation  is  bitter  be- 
cause their  hearts  are  saying — If  there  were  no  commandment, 
and  no  disgrace,  I  also  would  do  the  same  !  They  most  assuredly 
condemn  themselves,  even  in  their  condemnation  of  others. 

We  know  by  experience  that  our  own  lust  is  stirred  from 
the  beginning  in  earliest  infancy,  and  that  the  rising  of  it  is 
exhibited  in  every  child ;  but  we  too  often,  alas !  overlook — and 
in  this  particular  the  deniers  of  original  sin  have  some  ground 
of  right — that  freedom  to  overcome  this  lust  is  also  present  from 
the  beginning.  Only  set  before  the  child  a  stronger  enticement ; 
impress  upon  him  a  mighty  fear  of  peril  and  punishment ;  let 
the  victorious  love  to  his  parents  oppose  his  desires,  and  those 


252  THE  ORIGIN  AND  END  OF  EVIL. 

desires  will  be  often  overcome  :  but  what  it  is  capable  of  doing 
once,  that  it  must  always  be  capable  of  doing.  Therefore,  if 
thou,  poor,  weak,  sinful  man,  who  hast  gi'own  up  in  thy  sin, 
sayest,  "  I  am  now  such  and  sucli !"  in  that  thou  art  right.  But 
if  thou  goest  further  in  thy  bold  excuse,  "  What  else  can  I 
do?  did  I  make  myself?"  in  that  thou  art  only  half  right,  and 
already  art  more  than  half  wrong.  But  if  thou  wouldst,  .con- 
trary to  St  James'  warning,  go  to  the  whole  extreme,  and  say, 
"  Why  has  God  so  made  me,  or  suffered  me  to  become  what  I 
am?"  thy  Avrong  is  altogether  without  any  semblance  of  right. 
God  suffered  thee  to  be  born  with  thy  own  lust,  but  also  with 
the  same  word  in  thy  conscience  which  He  spoke  to  Cain.  Hast 
thou  withstood  thy  lust,  as  in  the  beginning  thou  mightest  have 
done  ?  We  have  all  increased  for  ourselves  our  original  sin  ; 
strictly  speaking,  we  have  for  ourselves  made  it  our  own  actual 
sin  in  the  will.  The  present  lust  of  every  one  has  not  become 
so  strong  without  a  multitude  of  compliances,  and  these  have 
made  it  now  subject  to  their  law ;  the  conception  and  birth, 
then  the  growth  of  sin  to  strength  in  acts,  has  become  new  in 
every  individual  through  his  own  personal  guilt.  The  possi- 
bility that  a  descendant  of  Adam  should  from  the  beginning 
withstand  his  lusts,  must  on  the  one  hand  be  admitted,  on  ac- 
count of  the  freedom  of  the  will ;  although  on  other  grounds  it 
has  never  become  an  actual  reality.  Here  we  must  pause  with 
the  word  of  St  James,  without  any  such  further  pondering  as 
might  lead  us  to  one-sided  dogmatics.  He  teaches  us  the  same 
as  the  song  of  Moses  expressed :  "  A  God  of  truth  and  without 
iniquity,  just  and  right  is  He.  Men  have  comipted  them- 
selves; their  spot  is  not  the  spot  of  His  children — that  they  are 
not  His  children,  that  is  their  own  blot; — they  are  a  perverse  and 
crooked  generation"  (Dent,  xxxii.  4,  5). 

What  then  is  to  be  done,  since  it  is  actually  thus  with  us  all  ? 
smce  in  us  all  sin  has  conceived  and  has  brought  forth  sin  ?  We 
must  cry  to  Him  for  helj:),  who  did  not  make  and  hath  no  plea- 
sure in  sin,  from  whom  all  good  and  no  evil  comes.  This  certainly 
we  can  do.  Even  a  heathen  may  do  this  ;  and  it  sometimes  oc- 
curs that  he  finds  grace  even  in  the  midst  of  his  deep  darkness. 
But  to  us  as  Christians,  to  whom  help  is  offered  and  most  freely 
preached,  the  duty  is  to  lay  hold  upon  this  help  !  And  to  what 
end  must  we  lay  hold  of  and  use  this  help  ?     In  order  that  we 


JAMES  I.  13-15.  253 

may  continually  cut  off  the  sins  which  continually  grow,  in  word 
and  deed  ?  That  we  may  attain  to  a  so-called  virtue,  which  we 
shall  neither  speak  nor  do  that  which  is  evil?  Oh  no,  dear 
brethren  !  The  axe  must  be  laid  at  the  root ;  the  root  must  be 
rooted  out;  otherwise  the  fruit  of  evil  must  continually  re- 
appear. Lust  bringeth  forth  sin ;  that  is,  according  to  St  James' 
true  word,  not  the  sin  of  word  or  act,  but  the  first  and  proper 
sin  of  the  heart.  Say  not  that  thy  consent  to  lust  is  not  of  itself 
sin !  If  thou  so  tliink,  and  therefore  suffer  and  trifle  with 
such  inward  consent,  woe  unto  thee  !  That  is  opening  the  door, 
in  the  vain  delusion  that  the  enemy  will  not  enter  ;  it  is  to  seek 
to  dry  up  the  swelling  watercourse  without  damming  up  its 
source.  The  spark,  if  it  falls  upon  the  tinder,  must  needs  kindle 
fire.  The  seed  is  in  the  soil,  and  how  should  it  not  grow !  It  is 
with  sin  as  with  conception  and  hirth :  as  the  child  is  born  at  its 
time,  because  it  was  already  in  the  mother's  womb,  so  does  the 
sin  exhibit  itself  when  lust  has  conceived  by  the  will.  As  the 
child,  when  born,  grows  and  thrives,  and  at  first  very  rapidly,  so 
does  the  sin  born  in  the  heart  grow  and  thrive  in  the  life.  No 
weed  sprouts  so  strong  and  quickly,  no  water  gushes  so  abun- 
dantly, no  fire  burns  so  devouringly,  as  sin.  See  how  sin,  even 
from  Adam  to  Cain,  had  grown  up  to  murder  and  defiance  of 
God !  See  hoAV  it  then  waxed  down  to  the  death  of  all  flesh  in 
the  judgment  of  the  flood !  So  is  it  still  with  every  one  :  in  the 
inmost  principle  of  evil — if  the  gi'ace  of  God  do  not  hinder  it — 
there  already  lies  the  whole  way  of  ruin  down  to  the  final  end. 

But  sin,  when  it  is  finished,  bringeth  forth  death  !  About 
this  only  a  short,  but  solemn  word,  as  iii  the  text.  Know  ye  not 
that  to  whom  ye  yield  yom'selves  servants  to  obey,  his  servants 
ye  are  to  whom  ye  obey,  whether  of  sin  unto  death,  or  of  obe- 
dience unto  righteousness?  When  ye  yielded  your  members  to 
the  service  of  uncleanness,  and  from  one  unrighteousness  to 
another,  what  fruit  had  ye  then  in  those  things  ?  What  are 
ye  ashamed  of  now  ?  for  the  end  of  these  things  is  death  (Eom. 
vi.  16,  19,  21).  Yes,  verily,  from  one  unrighteousness  to  another, 
through  dying  and  perishing  in  sure  process — such  is  the  so- 
called  life  of  sin  !  And  if  it  I'eaches  its  full  growth,  then  sin  brings 
forth,  as  itself  had  been  brought  forth.  And  what  brings  it  forth 
but  that  which  long  before  was  concealed  in  it  ?  It  bringeth 
forth  or  out — death  !    So  says  St  James,  and  means  it  in  the  full 


254  ALL  GOOD  GIFTS  FROM  ABOVE. 

sense  of  the  word  in  the  New  T*estament ;  as  where  it  is  said 
that  death  is  the  wages  of  sin,  and  as  also  in  the  beginning, 
Thou  shalt  surely  die  !  Adam  and  Eve  sin — and  at  once  the 
light  and  life  of  God  in  their  souls  begins  its  course  of  extinc- 
tion and  death.  They  flee,  they  lie,  they  speak  against  God 
(though  this  last  as  it  were  without  knowledge,  though  not  alto- 
gether without  will) ;  of  these  first  sinners  an  entire  humanity  is 
born  which  lieth  in  death,  and  which  must  go  on  to  death — 
only  to  be  redeemed  by  the  bitter  death  of  Christ.  Blessed  be 
God  !  The  gift  of  His  grace  is  eternal  life  in  Jesus  Christ  our 
Lord.  Hold  that  fast  in  faith,  O  sinner,  and  then  thy  evil  shall  yet 
have  a  good  JlnisJiing — an  end  and  issue  deserving  of  the  name. 
Otherwise  thou  wilt  and  must  urge  thy  way  whither  thy  lust, 
thy  sin,  for  ever  urges  thee.  Eveiy  lust,  which  thou  dost  not 
crucify  and  kill,  is  and  becomes  sin — think  well  of  that !  Every 
actual  sin  strengthens  the  lust,  and  goes  on  to  new  and  greater 
sins,  even  unto  death  !  If  all  the  confessions  of  lost  sinners  were 
before  us,  with  endless  differences  they  would  all  agree  in  their 
history,  going  back  to  the  original  history  of  sin  : — tempted  of 
their  own  lust,  then  thus  the  birth  of  sin,  then  the  growth  of  sin, 
and  out  of  it  the  birth  of  death.  To  escape  from  death  and  to 
be  saved  into  life,  is  to  escape  from  sin,  to  overcome  our  own 
lust,  and  finally  to  root  it  out  through  the  gift  and  grace  of  God. 
To  this  St  James  now  leads  the  readers  of  his  Epistle ;  speaks  in 
direct  opposition  of  the  good  which  He  giveth,  of  man's  regenera- 
tion by  His  grace  through  the  Spirit. 

V. 

ALL  GOOD  GIFTS  FROM  ABOVE. 

(Ch.  i.  16-18.) 

Do  not  err,  my  beloved  brethren.  Every  good  gift  and  every  perfect  gift  is 
from  above,  and  cometli  down  from  the  Father  of  Hghts,  with  whom  is  no 
variableness,  and  changing  shadow.  Of  His  own  will  begat  He  us  with 
the  word  of  truth,  that  we  should  be  a  kind  of  first-fruits  of  His  creatiu-cs. 

"  Do  not  err,  my  beloved  brethren  !"     How  are  we  to  under- 
stand this  brief,  affectionate,  and  impressive  word  ?     Does  it  not 


JAMES  I.  16-18.  255 

ascribe  too  much  to  us — that  is,  taking  the  words  literally,  as  St 
James  accustoms  us  to  do  in  his  words  ?  We  feel  disposed  at 
first  to  retreat  behind  that  wise  proverb,  which  itself  does  not  err 
—  To  err  is  human  /  Yes,  verily,  my  brethren,  that  is,  alas,  per- 
fectly true  ;  but  on  that  very  account  be  on  your  guard  against 
being  led  astray  into  the  worst  error.  Is  the  proverb  to  be  so 
interpreted  as  to  make  us  indifferent  and  thoughtless,  because 
error  is  excused  before  the  vain  bar  of  human  opinion  ?  God 
forbid  !  That  were  to  pervert  the  wise  word  by  the  most  infa- 
tuated folly.  To  sin  also  is  human :  should  we  therefore  make 
sin  to  be  a  light  thing?  And  that  St  James  is  not  speaking  of 
the  unhurtf ul  deviation  to  the  right  or  left,  but  of  an  error  which 
is  closely  connected  with  si7t  and  death,  we  should  feel  quite 
sure,  even  if  nothing  were  said  to  that  effect.  Do  not  err,  be- 
loved brethren,  is  his  affectionate  counsel  and  supplication.  Love 
does  not  judge  the  erring  brother,  but  helps  him  to  attain  the 
truth  :  it  would  convert  the  sinner  from  the  error  of  his  way,  to 
save  the  soul  from  death  (ch.  v.  20).  Love  counsels,  and  warns, 
and  teaches,  in  order  to  save.  Dost  thou  say,  on  the  contrary, 
"  But  a  little  error  is  not  hm-tful !"  take  care  Avhat  thou  say  est. 
In  many  earthly  matters  this  may  be  true;  and  yet,  what  man 
^\-illingly  errs  even  in  the  most  trivial  things  ?  Who  does  not  feel 
vexed  and  ashamed  about  it  afterwards  ?  Our  perverted  mind 
sometimes  takes  it  more  ill  to  be  charged  with  error  by  a  fellow- 
mortal,  than  to  be  charged  with  sin  by  God  !  Even  in  earthly 
affairs  a  very  great  evil  may  easily  spring  from  a  very  slight 
error  ;  as  a  very  slight  deviation  from  the  right  course  leads  our 
way  farther  and  farther  from  the  right.  And  so  there  is  an 
error  in  knowledge  of  Divine  things,  which  itself  springs  from 
error  in  the  heart  and  will,  and  leads  onward  to  more  and  more. 
It  is  of  that  St  James  speaks  ;  and  we  must  not  answer  him  by 
saying — A  little  error  or  sin  can  do  no  mischief !  He  warns  us 
against  going  altogether  astray  from  the  way  of  life.  Woe  unto 
those  who  fall  into  the  full  ruin  of  sin,  through  the  full  error  of 
i\n ;  who  never  received  the  solemn  word — Do  not  err  !  God 
is  not  mocked !  That  which  a  inan  soweth,  that  shall  he  also 
reap  !  (Gal.  vi.  7).  But  woe  also  to  those  who  lightly  regai'd  a 
trifling  error  in  its  beginning,  and  find  themselves  led  away  by 
degrees  into  the  same  absolute  destruction  ! 

What  is  that  perilous  byeway  of  fancy,  what  error  sinful  in 


256  ALL  GOOD  GIFTS  FKOM  ABOVE. 

itself,  and  plunging  into  deeper  sin,  does  St  James  mean  here 
especially?  According  to  the  connection,  it  is  manifestly  the 
forgetting  and  perverting  of  the  great  fundamental  truth,  that 
with  us  alone  there  is  sin  with  its  lust  and  guilt,  \\\i\\  God  alone 
grace  and  good.  He  :vvould  show  us  the  true  ground  and  som'ce 
of  evil  and  of  good,  that  we  may  not  remain  in  most  perilous  and 
fruitful  error  on  these  points,  lie  has  already  spoken  of  the 
evil,  whence  alone  it  comes,  and  whence  the  temptation  to  it  ; 
he  now  continues,  by  showing  us  the  sole  source  of  all  good. 

The  next  w^ord  of  his  "s^■isdom,  which  children  learn,  and  yet 
men  cannot  sufficiently  understand,  is  strictly  speaking  untrans- 
lateable  in  our  language  ;  for,  like  many  such  profound  sayings 
in  and  out  of  the  Bible,  it  has  a  double  sense.  But  it  is  not,  as 
in  the  case  of  the  proverb  we  have  just  quoted,  a  dangerous 
saying  Avhich  may  mislead  ;  for,  the  word  of  God  speaks  only 
salutary  truth,  when  it  compresses  into  one  compact  expression 
two  sides  of  the  same  matter.  The  original  may  be  here  read 
— Pure  good  gift,  nothing  but  good  gift  cometh  from  above  ; 
and  also — Every  good  gift  cometh  from  above,  cometh  from  no- 
where else.  But  both  are  true :  let  us  consider  them  one  after 
the  other. 

Thus  first :  Nothing  hut  good  gift  cometh  from  above,  from 
the  Father  of  light,  with  whom  there  is  no  darkness  :  these 
last  words  plainly  point  to  this  first  meaning.  Nothing  that  is 
evil  cometh  from  above,  or  from  God  !  For  God  is  the  Father 
of  lights,  as  the  original  means ;  that  is  (according  to  another 
Scripture,  Heb.  xii.  9),  the  Father  and  Creator  of  spirits,  which 
as  pure  rays  of  the  primitive  light  have  their  origin  from  Him, 
and,  as  the  morning  stars  in  His  light,  as  the  children  of  God, 
sang  together  at  the  first  creation  (Job  xxxviii.  7).  But  the 
expression  is  again  twofold  in  its  meaning:  the  lights  of  heaven, 
the  stars  and  suns  shining  above,  where  to  us  is  the  throne 
of  God,  are  the  figm'es  as  well  as  the  dwelling-place  of  the  pure 
spiritual  world  ;  the  light,  as  the  first  beginning  of  the  physical 
creation  and  nearest  to  God,  is  poured  out  over  them  for  a 
figure  and  testimony  of  sacred  glory.  God  is  a  light — is,  as  we 
know,  the  declaration  of  all  Scriptm*e ;  and  St  James  developcs 
this  truth  in  very  profound  words,  which  the  translation  gives 
plainly  enough  for  the  common  apprehension,  but  which  must 
be  carefully  understood — with  whom  there  is  not,  in  whom 


JAMES  I.  lG-18.  257 

'  there  dwelleth  not,  change  or  sJiadoiv  of  turning,  or  vicissitude. 
The  Holy  Spirit  speaks,  in  this  word  of  St  James,  of  tilings 
which  human  science  did  not  recover  the  kno^^'tedge  of  until  late, 
and  is  now  first  beginning  fully  to  learn.  There  are  bodies  or 
stars,  like  our  earth,  which  have  not  always  light,  but  through 
their  revolutions  have  alternate  night  and  day.  These  are  the  stars 
of  which  !Moses  records  that  they  did  not,  lil^e  the  morning  stars 
of  which  Job  speaks,  as  already  existing  in  the  heavens  behold 
the  foundations  of  the  earth,  but  were  created  or  brought  to 
view  on  the  fourth  day.  Thus  they  all  belong  to  the  earth,  to 
this  lower  world  (which  astronomers  call  the  solar  system,  but 
might  also  call  it  earth-systeni),  where  light  and  darkness  alter- 
nate, to  the  creation  in  which  God  commanded  the  light  to 
shine  out  of  dai'kness  (2  Cor.  iv.  6).  That  old  first  darkness, 
of  which  Moses  speaks  in  the  second  verse  of  Scripture,  God, 
the  Father  of  lio-hts  and  of  lia;ht,  did  not  create.  He  could 
never  have  said.  Let  there  be  darkness !  Darkness  is  the  pro- 
duct and  the  witness  of  the  first  apostasy  in  the  light-heaven 
of  the  first  creation  ;  therefore  it  said  only,  God  saw  that  the 
light  was  good.  T\^iere  there  is  only  good,  there  is  only  light. 
So  in  the  upper  spaces  of  heaven  the  suns — like  our  sun,  an 
example  brought  nearer  to  us — themselves  opaque  and  dark 
like  the  earth,  yet  are  wrapped  in  light  without  alternation. 
This  pure  light-world  of  stars  and  angels  is  above  in  relation  to 
our  earthly  and  planetary  heloio :  and  this  St  James  means 
when  he  says  from  above.  Thence  comes  only  good,  from  the 
Father  of  lights.  The  earth  before  the  fall  of  Satan — from 
which  alone  darkness  came  (Acts  xxvi.  18;  Col.  i.  12, 13) — was 
also  light  without  alternation  and  change ;  and  the  new  light 
of  grace  comes  to  it  again  from  God.  until  in  its  transfigura- 
tion  there  shall  be  no  more  day  and  night  (Eev.  xxi.  25). 
Thus  the  whole  external  world  is  only  a  figure.  Thus  St 
James  exhibits  to  us  with  profound  truth  God,  the  original 
fountain  of  hght  and  of  good,  as  being  as  it  were  the  original 
and  central  Sun.  He  who  says,  "I  am  the  Lord,  I  change  not!" 
(Mai.  iii.  6),  knoweth  of  and  in  Himself  no  darlaiess  or  shadow, 
so  that  He  shoidd  receive  the  light  from  above  upon  Himself, 
or  should  turn  towards  or  away  from  the  hght ;  and  therefore 
nothing  but  light,  that  is,  good,  cometh  from  Him.  But  evil 
hath  come  ^vith  the  darlaiess,  since  through  sin  the  below  and 


258  ALL  GOOD  GIFTS  rROM  ABOVE. 

the  abyss  have  come  into  being.  Thus  no  evil  is  from  above! 
This  has  a  broad  and  deep  meaning,  which  we  now  only  hint  at 
for  intelhgent  minds. 

And,  first,  no  temjDtation  is  from  God,  no  di'awing  or  entic- 
ing to  evil,  since  evil  itself  can  never  be  from  God  or  the  will 
of  God.  Concerning  this  St  James  has  spoken  to  us  already. 
To  have  such  a  thought  in  the  mind  is  the  worst  possible  erro?-, 
is  blasphemy,  is  a  denial  of  the  Father  of  lights ;  and  though 
such  a  delusion  may,  as  an  apology  for  sin,  only  in  secret  be- 
guile our  souls,  it  is  yet  the  most  perilous  of  all  errors.  The 
fundamental  wisdom  of  our  knowledge  and  conscience  must 
hold  this  fast  with  immoveable  fidelity: — only  from  ourselves 
and  in  ourselves  is  evil,  from  Him  and  with  Him  only 
good ! 

But,  we  may  ask,  is  not  the  darkness  of  evil  and  misery,  the 
suffering  which  becomes  oiu"  trial,  from  the  hand  and  counsel 
of  God  !  In  this  sense,  indeed,  the  Lord  Himself  speaks  in  the 
Prophets :  I  make  light,  and  I  create  the  darkness ;  I  make 
peace,  and  bring  evil  (Is.  xlv.  7).  But  even  here  too — Do  not 
err,  beloved  brethren  ;  do  not  misunderstand  this !  That  we 
have  indeed,  as  our  planet  has,'  day  and  night  in  our  life ;  that 
happiness  and  sorrow  alternate,  or  that  in  our  day  the  assem- 
bling clouds  hide  from  us  the  sun  ; — is  for  the  present  time 
God's  appointment  and  will.  But  as  this  springs  from  our  sin, 
and  not  from  the  original  purpose  of  God,  who  could  not  desire 
the  unhappiness  of  any  of  His  creatui'es,  so  also  the  gift  of  God 
in  our  evil  and  unhappiness  is  only  good ;  in  the  very  curse 
itself  there  is  a  secret  blessing,  which  aims  to  abolish  the  sin, 
and  repair  its  miserable  consequences.  Night  in  itself  is  not 
evil ;  rather  its  dark  womb  prepares  the  seeds  of  light  and  life 
for  the  day.  Foul  weather,  so  called,  hurts  not,  but  works  the 
blessing  of  prosperity  and  growth.  So  Lazarus  suffered  evil  in 
his  lifetime,  which  however  prepared  him  for  the  everlasting 
comfort ;  that  evil  was  to  him,  as  the  gift  of  God,  as  much  good 
as  the  good  things  of  the  rich  man.  Had  God  known  concern- 
ing  this  latter  that  he  would  have  sustained  the  test,  it  would 
have  been  applied  to  him  also ;  for  His  fidelity  diligently  leads 
every  one  without  neglect  out  of  darkness,  and  through  the 
darkness  to  fight.  That  has  been  the  marvellous  procedure  of 
the  Eternal  Liirht  with  our  souls  from  the  beginning  of  the  FalL 


JAMES  I.  16-18.  259 

The  darkness  condemns  sin,  and  makes  manifest  that  the  h'jxht 
alone  is  good;  he  who  submits  to  be  judged  in  grace,  will  be 
enlightened  and  saved.  Unhappiness  and  e\dl  mixing  them- 
selves, become  the  means  of  salvation  against  the  evil.  The 
curse  of  banishment  from  Paradise  was  at  first  the  best  bless- 
ing which  God  had  for  Adam.  Finally,  in  Christ,  the  second 
Adam,  all  becomes  fully  manifest :  not  by  might  from  without 
can  God  abolish  the  sin  in  the  will  of  the  fallen  creature  ;  but 
He  giveth  His  life  to  death,  His  light  into  the  darkness,  that 
out  of  the  sin  of  the  world  the  reconciliation  of  the  world,  out 
of  the  curse  of  death  the  blessing  of  life,  out  of  the  darkness  of 
the  cross  the  new  imperishable  nature,  should  come  to  light. 
And  now  for  ever  we  walk  in  the  same  way  through  sufferings 
to  glory,  through  much  tribulation  into  the  Idngdom  of  God. 
Go^s  gift  in  suffering  and  in  trial  is  no  other  than  our  salva- 
tion :  this  must  be  known  and  accepted ;  in  this  it  behoves  us, 
as  the  most  momentous  tiaith  in  our  probation,  not  to  err ! 
Who  is  he  that  will  harm  you,  if  ye  be  followers  of  that  which 
is  good  (1  Pet.  iii.  13)  ;  if  ye  believingly  lay  hold  of  that  good 
thino;  which  is  not  wanting  even  in  the  troubles  concerning 
which  ye  say — We  receive  evil  from  God  ?  To  those  who  love 
God  as  the  supreme  and  only  Good,  who  persist  stedfastly  in 
that  love,  all  things  work  together  for  good ;  and  the  best  thing 
for  us  in  order  to  our  eternal  advantage  is  the  manifold  trial 
which  through  patience  works  out  salvation.  Therefore,  let  us 
not  proudly  or  foolishly  complain  against  God,  and  reject  the 
good  as  if  it  vrere  evil !  But  let  us  well  understand  that  we 
cannot  help  or  redeem  ourselves ;  that,  indeed,  with  us  nothing 
but  evil  is  found  I 

This  is  the  second  meaning  of  St  James'  saying :  Every  good 
gift  Cometh  from  above,  from  that  God  who  alone  hath  it  to 
give,  whose  light  alone  re-illumines  our  darkness.  Nothing  good 
cometh  from  below!  There  is  no  internal  help  even  against 
external  tribulation.  As  every  good  gift,  life  and  breath,  and 
all  things  which  the  sustentation  of  life  requires  from  our 
mother's  womb,  has  come  from  the  hand  of  God — so  He,  and 
Pie  alone,  is  our  Eedeemer  and  Helper  in  the  time  of  need. 
"  From  Him  is  good  all  over  the  earth  :  therefore,  my  son,  in 
thy  sickness  be  not  negligent ;  but  pray  unto  the  Lord,  and  He 
will  make  tliee  whole"  (Ecclus.  xxxviii.  8,  9).     When  thou  art 


260  ALL  GOOD  GIFTS  FROM  ABOVE. 

in  trouble,  vain  is  tliy  own  help  and  the  help  of  man  (Ps.  Ix.  11) ; 
seek  it  of  the  Lord,  who  is  the  King  of  old,  working  all  the 
salvation  that  is  in  the  midst  of  the  earth  (Ps.  Ixxiv.  12). 
"VTliatsoever  might  help  thee  in  thyself,  or  in  another  man, 
must  first  be  received  of  God  :  it  is  not  indeed  independent  of 
thyself,  and  all  appropriate  means ;  but,  if  it  be  effectual  help, 
it  must  come  directly  from  above.  The  consolation  in  trouble 
which  comes  from  below  is  vanity,  deception,  and  ruin.  The 
"  merry  heart "  which  we  may  create  in  ourselves  must  lapse 
'back  into  deeper  misery ;  and  the  peace  which  is  false  cannot 
endure.  Alas,  what  we  in  our  perverted  thoughts  "  count  all 
joy,"  turns  sooner  or  later  into  pure  sorrow.  We  are  useless  phy- 
sicians to  ourselves,  with  whatever  unguents  we  anoint  our  hurt; 
miserable  comforters  are  we  to  our  own  poor  souls,  if  we  seek 
to  find  rest  in  any  other  way  than  that  of  inward  sanctification. 
But  the  grace  of  God  comforts  all  who  mourn  (Is.  Ixi.  2).  Lust 
in  us  bringeth  forth  sin,  and  sin  death  ;  this  fountain  of  evil  in 
us  must  be  dried  up,  and  a  new  spring  of  life  opened  up  within 
our  souls.  This  good  gift  of  God  for  us  poor  sinners  cometh 
from  above,  and  that  without  cessation  or  change ;  the  true  light 
of  the  life  of  God  shineth  uninterruptedly  into  the  darkness  of 
our  night ;  the  sun  of  grace  stands  vmveiled  in  the  heavens 
above  us,  and  sendeth  forth  its  beams,  its  lights,  angels,  mes- 
sengers, and  gifts,  so  that  we  have  nothing  to  do  but  in  faith  to 
receive,  and  in  patience  to  hold  fast,  the  gift ;  and  if  we  are  op- 
pressed as  Israel  was,  when  the  sea  was  before  and  the  Egyp- 
tians behind — "Fear  not;  stand  still,  and  see  the  salvation  of 
God !  The  Lord  shall  fight  for  you,  and  ye  shall  hold  your 
peace!"  (Ex.  xiv.  13,  14).  In  quietness  and  hope  shall  ye  be 
strong  (Is.  XXX.  15). 

But  loho  can  do  this  ?  Who  may  thus  abide  in  the  patience 
of  faith  unto  his  final  confirmation  and  glorification  in  the  light 
of  God,  so  that  the  Father's  good  gift  may  have  the  victory 
over  the  evil  in  himself,  life  in  the  Father's  light  have  the  vic- 
tory over  the  darkness  of  death ?  Only  he  "saIio  by  faith  has 
become  one  of  God's  people ;  who  has  received  through  that 
faith,  but  from  the  grace  and  gift  coming  down  from  above,  a 
new  heart  and  a  new  spirit .;  only  he  who  has  been  begotten  of 
the  Father  as  a  child  of  li<:;ht,  and  no  lono;er  walketh  in  dark- 
ness.     Therefore  St  James  speaks  not  merely  of  every  good  gift 


JAJVIES  I.  16-18.  261 

generally ;  but  strengthens  the  expression,  and  names  it  the 
perfect  gift,  which  restores  to  iis  light  and  life  in  a  recjeneration 
from  God.  What  would  avail  all  other  gifts  of  God  to  us  sin- 
ners, born  of  the  flesh,  and  children  of  death,  without  this  fun- 
damental gift  ?  To  the  natural  man  all  good  coming  from  God 
is  perverted  into  evil  by  sin,  the  greater  guilt  and  punishment  of 
unthankfulness  and  misuse ;  to  the  regenerate  all  evil,  spring- 
ing from  his  own  sin  and  the  sin  of  the  world,  is  changed  into 
good  through  grace.  Thus  we  understand  in  w^hat  necessary 
connection  St  James  goes  on  to  say,  concerning  the  Father  of 
lights,  that  of  His  free  will  He  hath  begotten  us  through  the 
word  of  truth,  that  we  might  be  the  first-fruits  of  His  creatures. 
All  His  other  good  gifts  testify  of  this ;  they  lead,  and  most 
persuasively  invite,  us  to  come  to  this  go(3d  Father.  The  water 
which  we  drink,  and  the  bread  which  we  eat,  say  to  us — If  thou 
knewest  the  gift  of  God,  the  meat  and  the  drink  which  is  unto 
eternal  life  !  We  know,  O  Christians,  in  Whom  the  Father 
giveth  to  us  the  "imspeakable  gift"  (2  Cor.  ix.  15).  Death  is 
the  wages  of  sin  ;  but  God's  gift  of  grace  is  eternal  life,  in  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord.  Through  Christ,  God  has  given  Himself  to  us 
as  a  Father,  that  we  may  become  His  children — lights  without 
darkness  of  shadow,  beams  and  mirrors  of  the  eternal  original 
Light.  The  pure  spirits  of  the  first  creation  were  the  first-fruits, 
as  their  vestures  and  abodes  were  the  morning  stars,  of  the  day 
which  proceeded  from  the  Father  of  lights.  Then  was  there 
darkness  in  heaven  by  means  of  him  who  himself  would  shine, 
and  fell  into  the  abyss.  Over  that  abyss  Adam  was  created, 
concerning  whom  the  Creator's  counsel  knew  beforehand  that 
he,  with  all  his  race,  would  fall  into  the  deceitfulness  of  dark- 
ness ;  but  for  whom  the  eternal  will  of  Love  had  also  beforehand 
appointed  a  new  and  glorious  victory  of  light  through  redeeming 
grace.  This  supreme  counsel  and  will  of  the  Father  becomes 
an  accomplished  reality  in  each  of  the  fallen  children  of  Adam, 
A\'hen  he  receives  the  gift  of  grace  prepared  and  proffered  to 
him.  This  is  the  wonder  of  all  wonders,  the  ever-continuous 
birth  of  the  son  of  God  as  the  new  Adam,  of  the  new  man  as 
the  son  of  God,  in  us  believers.  It  takes  place  in  profound 
secret  and  mystery  :  as  the  light  from  above  sinks  down  into 
the  darkness,  as  the  sunbeam  prepares  life  in  the  plant,  as  every 
birth  of  life  in  this  domain  of  darkness  and  death  is  a  mystery 


262  ALL  GOOD  GIFTS  FROM  ABOVE. 

of  the  struggle  of  the  upper  influences  of  the  world  of  light  and 
life  with  Chaos — so  is  the  new  birth  of  a  sinful  man  into  the 
sonship  of  God.  It  is  an  essential  hirth  of  life,  even  as  pre- 
viously there  was  a  birth  of  death  from  sin — hence  St  James  uses 
the  same  word  in  both  cases.  The  children  of  this  regeneration 
are  now  naturally  and  in  strict  right  elevated,  through  a  new 
creation  which  surpasses  the  first  in  glory,  to  a  dignity  above 
the  unfallen  angels  :  we  are  in  reality  already,  and  we  shall  be 
manifestly  in  the  consummation,  in  a  certain  sense  the  first-fruits, 
the  highest  and  most  glorious  of  all  the  creatures  of  God.  For 
the  Son,  born  eternally  of  the  eternal  Father,  the  Fu'st-born 
before  every  creature,  makes  us  partakers  of  His  Divine  nature, 
even  as  He  has  taken  upon  Himself  ours.  In  Christ,  and  finally 
made  like  unto  Him,  we  receive  not  merely,  like  Adam,  dominion 
over  the  earth  ;  but  all  things  are  put  under  the  feet  of  the  Son 
of  Man  !  The  heavenly  creature  bows  down  before  this  gift  and 
grace  of  the  Most  High ;  the  earthly  creation  becomes  in  its 
deliverance  the  body  and  the  temple  of  the  children  of  God  ! 

Such  superabounding  grace  hath  the  Father  given  and  laid 
up  for  us  of  His  oion  free  will — according  to  the  good  pleasure 
of  His  counsel,  to  the  praise  of  His  glorious  grace,  wherein  He 
hath  made  us  acceptable  in  the  Beloved,  for  our  sakes  not  spared; 
in  Avhom  He  freely  giveth  us  all  things,  through  the  love  with 
which  He,  rich  in  mercy,  loved  us  when  dead  in  our  sins.  It 
is  ever  and  essentially  a  gift  and  a  grace.  But  not — as  many 
think,  who  glory  in  this  "  ms"  as  referring  to  the  elect,  darken- 
ing the  glory  of  the  eternal  Father — that  this  grace  before 
appointed  us  particularly  to  life,  while  the  rest  were  left  to 
destruction  or  appointed  to  death.  God  forbid  !  We  were  saved 
by  grace,  but  through  faith,  which  received  the  gift  and  the  grace 
provided  for  all.  That  salvation  is  the  gift  of  God,  but  not  also 
in  the  same  sense  that  f aitli  which  the  gift  requires.  But  this  faith 
establishes  no  merit ;  for  even  if  we  believe,  we  do  no  more  than 
we  are  bound  to  do — and  this  illustrates  the  justice  of  that 
judgment  without  mercy  which  will  fall  upon  those  who  despise 
God's  mercy.  Further,  the  unbelieving  and  the  lost  will  not 
all  be  finally  saved,  so  that  in  this  sense  those  who  were  regene- 
rated in  the  first  period  of  grace  are  the  fii'st-fruits  of  the 
whole  :  faith  is  the  ground  of  decision  and  judgment  for  all 
eternity. 


JA31ES  I.  16-18.  263 

Therefore  St  James  appends,  as  the  necessaiy  medium  of 
regeneration,  through  the  word  of  truth  !  For  a  word  is  ad- 
dressed to  faith,  and  must  in  faith  be  embraced !  The  truth  is 
the  sliining  light  which  saveth  us  out  of  the  error  of  darkness 
— when  we  follow  that  light,  and  love  it  rather  than  darlaiess. 
Tlie  Word  of  God,  the  eternal  Incarnate  One,  and  the  Gospel, 
in  which  that  Word  lives  and  works  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  is  the 
seed  of  the  new  birth,  if  it  is  imjjlanted  in  us  (ver.  21).  The 
word  of  truth  is  preached  to  us  ;  it  is  written  in  the  Scripture, 
which  is  the  testimony  of  the  eternal  Wisdom  against  all  our 
error,  and  concerning  Whom  it  is  said — "All  the  words  of  Thy 
mouth  are  righteous ;  there  is  nothing  perverse  or  false  in 
them"  (Prov.  viii.  8).  But  this  word  of  God,  witnessing  or 
awakening,  is  met  and  responded  to  even  now  in  ourselves  by  a 
most  secret  word  of  truth,  which  is  to  be  awakened  in  us,— a 
glimmering  spark  of  light  in  the  deepest  ground  of  our  souls, 
derived  from  their  first  creation.  For,  how  could  we  acknow- 
ledge and  receive  in  faith  the  truth,  without  any  measure  of 
truth  in  ourselves  through  which  we  could  discern  it  to  be 
truth  ?  Were  we  altogether  dead,  it  would  not  be  we  who  w^ere 
awakened ;  not  we,  who  were  in  the  previous  state,  would  be 
the  regenerated.  Not  till  sin  is  finished  is  death  fully  brought 
forth ;  now  we  vibrate  and  hang  between  life  and  death ;  we 
can  and  we  may  embrace  life,  and  become  obedient  to  the  life- 
giving  truth  (which  still  speaks  to  us,  according  to  Ps.  xix., 
through  day  and  night)  !  O  that  everi/  man,  as  he  is  called, 
were  swift  to  hear  this  !  (ver.  19).  He  that  is  so  will  not  err ; 
he  that  so  abides,  from  the  time  of  his  first  hearing,  will  finally 
not 'go  astray  from  the  way  which  leads  to  the  glorious  goal  of 
the  first-fruits,  the  inheritance  of  the  saints  in  light. 

Do  ^ve  no  longer  err,  dear  brethren  1  Has  God  in  truth 
begotten  us  again  to  the  beginning  of  a  new  life  ?  and  are  we, 
as  children  of  the  Father,  faithfully  and  diligently  persevering 
in  the  obedience  of  the  truth  ?  Do  we  not  thoughtlessly  put 
from  us  any  good  and  perfect  gift  which  comes  down  to  us 
from  His  light,  in  order  to  our  growth  and  perfection  ?  Do  we 
vehemently  suppress  every  error  and  corruption  which  may 
come  to  our  lips  and  defile  our  life,  as  the  relics  of  the  old 
man  ?  The  words  wliicli  now  follow  put  us  to  the  earnest 
test. 


264  SWIFT  TO  HEAE. 


Yl. 


SWIFT  TO  HEAK. 

(Ch.  i.  19.) 

Wherefore,  my  beloved  brethren,  let  every  man  be  swift  to  hear,  but  slow  to 
speak,  and  slow  to  wrath. 

The  whole  life  of  every  man  moves  between  hearing  and 
speaking  ;  and  this  should  lead  us  to  infer  how  comprehensive 
and  far-reaching  in  its  application  this  saying  of  St  James  must 
be  !  What  inspiration  and  expiration  are  to  the  bodily  life, 
that  to  the  soul  is,  so  to  speak,  the  receiving  by  the  ear  and  re- 
peating by  the  lips.  But  we  must  breathe  wholesome  air,  if  we 
would  live  and  thrive.  Consequently,  it  is  apparent  at  once 
xohat,  and  hoio  or  to  lohat  end,  we  should  hear  :  it  is  obvious  that 
we  must  altogether  abstain  from  hearing  lies  and  deceptions ; 
that  we  should  not,  like  the  Athenians,  be  always  eager  or  swift 
to  hear  some  new  thing  (Acts  xvii.  21),  with  those  who  count 
life  a  market  for  gain  (Wisd.  xv.  12).  Therefore,  my  beloved 
brethren,  let  every  man  be  swift  to  hear ;  that  is,  as  we  have 
already  heard,  because  we  through  the  word  of  truth  are  born 
again  into  first-fruits  of  the  creatures  of  God.  Thus,  this  Word 
of  regeneration  is  what  we  must  hear !  Thus,  further,  we 
should  not  merely  hear — as  St  James  afterwards  proceeds — 
but  be  doers  of  the  ingrafted  word,  not  hearers  alone !  Other- 
wise, it  is  not  the  right  hearing ;  but  the  truth  has  been  heai'd 
as  if  it  were  not  true,  or  as  if  the  truth  were  not  to  be  carried 
into  act.  The  word  of  truth  brings  to  us  new  things  and  old ; 
and  not  to  overlook  the  old,  as  if  we  had  done  with  it,  is  of  the 
utmost  importance  and  necessity  in  our  ever-necessary  hearing. 
How  often  are  we  appealed  to — Know  ye  not  ?  Consider 
well  what  is  said !  What  the  text  means  is  fundamentally  the 
same  as  St  Peter's  exhortation — Purify  your  souls  in  the  obe- 
dience of  the  truth  through  the  Spirit !  (1  Pet.  i.  22).  This  is 
opposed  to  that  holding  of  the  trutli  in  unrighteousness,  to  that 
contentiousness  of  spirit,  which  obeys  not  the  trutli  (Rom.  i. 
18,  ii.  8).  As  this  not-hearing  is  the  universal  and  original  sin 
of  the  natural  man,  so,  alas,  the  temptation  to  it  most  easily 


JAMES  I.  19.  265 

occurs  to  believers;  and  they  must  be  asked,  as  the  Galatians  were 
— Who  hath  bewitched  you,  that  ye  should  not  obey  the  truth  ? 
(Gal.  iii.  1).  Something  of  this  bewitchment  adheres  ahvays  to 
the  old  man  ;  therefore  Ave  are  exliorted  (which  otherwise  would 
not  be  needful)  sioiftly  and  zealously  to  hear  what  we  are  in  our- 
selves sloiv  to  hear  and  receive,  because  we  love  not  to  hear  it. 

The  AVbat,  the  How,  and  the  Wherefore  of  this  required 
hearing  are  sufficiently  plain  ;  there  remains  only  the  question, 
When  and  ichere  should  we  hear  ?  But  the  answer — which  does 
not  permit  the  last  question,  Who  must  hear  ^  to  arise,  saying 
already,  Let  every  man  ! — will,  strictly  speaking,  scarce  allow 
any  when  or  where  ;  for  the  saying  is  directed  against  the  eva- 
sions of  the  idle  and  the  wilful,  who  might  say  that  not  now  or 
not  here  their  duty  is  to  hear.  St  James  exhorts  us,  always  and 
everywhere  to  hear,  where  salutary  truth  for  us  to  act  iipon,  in 
order  to  our  regeneration,  is  to  be  heard.  If  finally  in  the  judg- 
ment our  actions  will  decide,  before  the  actions  there  must  ne- 
cessarily be  the  hearing ;  hence  the  Lord  says,  He  that  heareth 
these  sayings  of  Mine,  and  doeth  them  !  (Matt.  vii.  24).  How 
can  there  be  any  obedience  without  previous  hearing?  and 
where  there  is  wanting  a  perfect  obedience  to  the  truth  which 
has  been  long  heard  and  known,  is  there  any  better  way  to 
amendment  than  first  of  all  better  to  hear  the  ever-returninff 
counsel  and  exhortation  ? 

But  after  all  these  questions,  some  may  still  ask,  or  even 
make  it  the  first  question —  Whom  shall  I  hear  ?  The  answer 
is  plain,  beloved  brethren :  I  must  hear  God,  who  speaks  and 
sends  to  me  the  word  of  truth  ;  rightly  to  understand,  I  must 
assuredly  not  hear  the  mere  word  of  man,  in  as  far  as  it  is  the 
word  of  man,  and  might  therefore  be  error  and  delusion.  For, 
it  still  remains  that  God  alone  is  true,  and  every  man  a  liar 
(Rom.  iii.  4).  But,  on  the  other  hand,  if  thou  shouldst  pervert 
this,  and  in  thy  blind  pride  despise  every  word  which  comes  to 
thee  through  human  lips,  and  refuse  to  hear  until  God  speak 
directly  to  thyself,  thou  wouldst  be  again  in  absolute  error. 
For,  although  God  can,  if  He  will,  reveal  Himself,  as  he  did 
to  Samuel — Speak,  Lord,  for  Thy  servant  heareth  ! — yet  He 
is  pleased  especially  to  speak  to  man  hy  men,  as  here  to  tlie  be- 
loved brethren  by  His  servant  James.  And  if  every  man  who 
knows  the  truth  has  that  truth  committed  to  him  for  a  testi- 


266  SWIFT  TO  IIEAE. 

moiij,  and  every  brother  must  exliort  and  edify  every  brother, 
it  becomes  the  duty  of  all  to  hear  every  word  to  which  we  are 
directed  by  God.  If,  finally,  that  we  may  hold  carefully  to  the 
text,  every  man  is  to  hear — even  if  he  have  no  special  Divine 
revelation,  no  servant  of  God  sent  to  exhort  him,  no  edifying 
brethren — we  must  embrace  the  widest  circle  of  aJl  that  timth 
which  is  in  the  world  for  the  hearing  of  man.  We  shall,  con- 
sequently, then  only  perfectly  expound  the  words,  when  we  un- 
derstand that  we  should  be  zealous  to  hear  every  salutary  tvord, 
every  ico7'd  of  truth  given  for  our  obedience,  winch  God  may  send 
to  us  in  any  loay.  But  that  truth  comes  to  us  in  three  ways: 
more  immediately  and  properly  as  the  word  of  God ;  more  in- 
directly through  the  word  of  man  ;  and,  over  and  above,  in  all 
the  world,  and  in  the  wliole  of  life. 

As  it  respects  the  first,  we  mention  not  at  once  the  new 
revelation  of  grace ;  but  previously  that  word  of  truth  Avhich 
speaks  to  the  natm*al  man  in  the  conscience.'  Here,  as  we  read 
before,  is  found  in  all  men  the  deepest  root  and  the  first  begin- 
ning of  their  holding  the  truth  in  unrighteousness.  O  that  every 
man  would  hear  what  God  speaketh  Avithin  him  !  But  this 
most  internal,  increated  word  is  pressed  down  by  our  sin,  which 
suffers  it  not  to  become  a.  word  spoken  to  us  ;  it  is  first  awak- 
ened, then  supplemented  and  developed  by  the  Holy  Spirit. 
To  hear  the  voice  of  the  Spirit,  who  is  a  Spirit  of  truth  and 
grace,  is  the  true  essential  for  us  all ;  if  we  do  not  hear  the 
Spirit  in  the  word,  we  have  not  heard  the  word  itself.  But, 
fm'ther,  how  does  the  Spu'it  speak  and  declare  His  presence  ? 
By  the  external  word,  in  which  He  condescendingly  wraps 
Himself,  by  which  He  opens  our  eyes,  so  that  we  may,  accord- 
ing to  the  will  of  God,  mark  the  presence  of  the  Spirit  in  it. 
We  must  first  have  heard  by  a  word  that  there  is  a  Holy  Ghost 
(Acts  xix.  2),  before  Ave  can  receive  the  Spirit  as  speaking  to 
ourselves.  And  Avherc  is  the  essential  word  of  the  Spirit  ?  In 
the  Holy  Scripture,  and  in  all  of  it  as  inspired  by  God.  Christ, 
the  incarnate  eternal  AVord,  stands  in  the  midst  of  Scripture. 
Over  Ilim  sounds  out  the  heavenly  voice — Him  shall  ye  hear  ! 
(Matt.  xvii.  5).  He  speaks  as  no  other  man  speaks,  with  su- 
preme avithority — Verily,  I  say  unto  you  !  But  His  word  is 
not  on  that  account  opposed  to  that  of  the  Apostles  and  Pro- 
phets, Avho,  before  and  after  Him,  testified  through  His  Spirit 


JAMES  I.  10.     ,  267 

concernino-  Himself.     The  whole  Bible  is  the  firm  and  certain 

o 

Avord,  in  whose  light  we  see  light,  in  whose  teaching  we  hear 
and  learn  tlie  truth,  which  discloses  to  us  the  depths  of  our  own 
hearts,  which  paves  the  way  for  us  to  the  word  of  the  Lord  Him- 
self who  is  the  Spirit.  The  word  of  Scripture  is  at  once  the  key 
and  tlie  seal  of  every  extant  word  of  truth,  which  the  grace  of 
God  has  provided  and  given.  To  what  end  then  given,  dear 
brethren  ?  Do  you  say — to  read  it,  for  it  is  Scnpture  ?  But  I 
would  hold  with  St  James — not  so,  but  to  hear  !  Understand 
this  aright.  Do  you  not  know,  have  you  not  experienced  in 
youi'selves,  and  seen  in  others,  how  altogether  unfruitful  is  a  cer- 
tain reading  of  the  Bible  ?  O  the  melancholy  reading  without 
the  hearing  of  the  heart !  O  the  dead  traffic  with  the  letter, 
which  becomes  not  a  living  word!  Do  we  not  know  those  who  are 
for  ever  reading;  and  learning,  without  comino-  to  the  knowledo;e 
of  the  truth  ?  (2  Tim.  iii.  7).  These  are  they  who  hear  not ! 
Therefore  said  Father  Abraham  to  the  man  in  hell,  who  cared 
for  his  brethren — They  have  Moses  and  the  Prophets,  let  them 
hear  them !  Yes,  verily  ;  and  thus  should  we  hear  the  holy  men 
of  God,  Prophets  and  Apostles,  who,  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost, 
spahe  to  us  in  the  Scriptures,  as  if  we  had  themselves  (which 
then  is  the  truth)  in  their  words.  And  not  only  so,  we  should 
similarly  hear  God,  speaking  by  His  servants  ;  we  should  hear 
Him,  if  born  again  by  the  word  of  truth,  as  His  children,  with 
childlike  attention — even  as  a  pious  child  gathers  into  his  heart 
the  words  of  an  earthly  father. 

In  order  that  we  may  learn  and  practise  this,  and  that  the 
written  word  sliould  not  remain  to  us  a  mere  writing,  the 
wisdom  of  God  appointed,  before  and  concurrently  with  all 
written  Scripture,  oral  preaching.  Let  us  never  despise  and 
reject  this  good  and  perfect  gift  of  the  Father!  Be  swift  to  go 
into  the  house  of  God,  as  you  are  invited ;  come  always  with 
purpose  to  hear  internally  for  faith  and  obedience.  What  the 
preacher  speaks  to  you  from  the  word  of  God,  as  the  word  of 
God,  is  not  given  to  you  to  criticise  and  talk  about,  but  to  retain 
and  ponder  in  your  hearts  ;  never  for  the  mere  increase  of  your 
knowledge,  for  the  heaping  up  in  your  mind  even  of  Bible- 
knowledge,  which  will  condemn  you  in  proportion  as, it  fails  to 
be  in  you  living  seed  of  fruitfid  works.  How  often  do  we 
preachers  address  om'selves  to  our  "devout  hearers  ;"  but  God 


268  .      SWIFT  TO  HEAR. 

knows  how  few  real  hearers  there  are  among  the  many  who 
listen  to  the  sermon  !  How  few  sit  under  the  pulpit  of  whom 
it  may  be  said — And  they  sate  down  at  Thy  feet ;  every  one 
shall  receive  of  Thy  words!  (Deut.  xxxiii.  3).  If  thou  wilt  hear 
and  learn  to  good  purpose,  hear  in  every  sermon  with  sincere 
heart  what  God  in  it  would  say  to  thee ;  and  what  the  Holy 
Spirit,  who  accompanies  the  preached  word,  would  say,  to  thy 
conscience  in  addition.  The  genuine  hearer  of  the  word  in  the 
church  holds  himself  responsible  to  answer  the  question  of  his 
own  heart — What  have  1  now  heard  for  myself?  and  he  goes 
and  becomes  a  doer  of  the  word  which  he  has  heard. 

But  God  gives  us,  fm'ther,  besides  Scripture  and  preaching, 
His  salutary  word,  for  our  sanctification  and  blessedness,  in  the 
more  mediate  words  of  men — yea,  often,  words  of  men  Avhicli 
may  prepare  the  way  for  the  regenerating  word  of  truth.  Or 
are  we  to  listen  only  to  words  spoken  by  those  who  hold  the 
preacher's  office,  and  reverently  receive  no  other  words  as 
the  word  of  God  for  obedience  ?  Yet  every  man  has  through 
life  others  over  or  by  his  side  who  are  to  him  invested  with 
the  honour  and  office  of  God's  representatives — parents  and 
masters,  according  to  the  Decalogue.  Hence  we  are  all  bound 
to  hear  from  childhood  to  the  very  end  of  life.  But,  that  we 
may  not  stretch  the  text  beyond  its  meaning,  this  requires  not 
so  much  the  oheying,  as  the  earnest  attention  to  every  good  and 
true  word  which  God  may  thus  send  to  us.  But  we  should 
show  ourselves  all  the  more  swift  to  hear,  when  they  who  speak 
to  us  speak  officially  to  us  as  appointed  by  God.  Children 
should  hear  the  word  of  their  parents,  and  of  all  who  stand  in 
their  place,  their  teachers  and  guardians  ;  servants  should  hear 
the  words  of  their  masters  ;  subjects  should  attend  to  the  com- 
mands of  those  over  them — it  always  being  understood  that 
what  is  said  is  said  from  the  truth.  What  endless  abundance 
of  wholesome  and  good  words  has  God's  grace  provided  for  us 
through  life  to  hear!  If  thou  actually  hearest  in  all  these 
relations,  according  to  St  James'  meaning, — although  it  maybe 
asked,  Wlio  has  done  all  this  as  he  should? — hast  thou  fulfilled 
all  thine  obligation  to  hear  ?  By  no  means,  and  it  would  be 
most  perverse  and  mischievous  to  think  that  we  have  nothing  to 
do  but  to  hear  those  human  w^ords  which  are  spoken  by  those 
who  have  a  special  Divine  appointment  over  us  !     So  thought 


JAMES  I.  19.  269 

that  ungodly  Israelite  when  he  repelled  the  interference  of 
Moses — Who  made  thee  a  judge  or  a  ruler  over  us?  (Ex.  ii. 
1-4).  That  is  the  very  language  of  the  refractory,  who  reject 
the  truth  of  God  instead  of  obeying  it.  Is  it  not  a  service  of 
love  to  thy  soul  to  say  the  saving  truth  which  concerns  thee  ? 
Does  not  that  come  also  from  God,  and  therefgre  demand  to  be 
received  in  His  name  ?  When,  therefore,  thy  friend  counsels 
and  teaches  thee,  spurn  not  the  message  and  gift  of  God  by 
him !  But  who  is  thy  friend  ?  Not  only  he  to  whom  thy 
caprice  assigns  the  name  and  specific  rights  of  a  friend ;  but,  if 
thou  woiddst  be  called  a  child  of  God,  every  other  child  of  God, 
every  brother  in  Christ.  When  he  thus  in  brotherly  wise  speaks 
to  thee,  he  is  thy  pastor,  sent  of  God  in  that  particular ;  even  as 
thy  pastor,  to  whom  thou  givest  this  title,  comes  to  thee  with 
his  counsel  as  a  brother.  Dost  thou  desire  that  thy  brother 
should  hear  thee — and  who  is  without  that  desire  ? — then  do  the 
same  to  him.  If  thy  brother  has  anything  against  thee,  should  he 
conceal  his  angry  feeling  in  his  heart,  and  count  thee  unworthy  of 
brotherly  converse,  and  thus  make  himself  partaker  of  thy  guilt  ? 
And  yet  how  unfrequent  even  among  Christians  is  the  sentiment 
of  David  the  king,  who,  bowing  down  before  every  man,  said — 
Let  the  righteous  smite  me  in  kindness,  and  rebuke  me  ;  it  shall 
be  a  balsam,  from  which  it  shall  not  turn  away  !  (Ps.  cxli.  5). 

Still  further,  dear  brethren !  Dare  I  ever  say  to  any  man 
— However  true  and  good  may  be  that  which  thou  say  est  to 
me,  I  have  no  need  to  hear  it,  for  thou  art  not  a  brother "?  We 
have  only  to  utter  this  aloud  in  the  hearing  of  God,  to  feel  its 
injustice  and  wrong.  St  James,  in  fact,  means  no  less  than  if 
he  had  said — Let  every  man  be  swift  to  hear  every  man.  As 
the  child  should  hear  the  wiser  and  more  experienced  word  of 
every  adult,  the  ignorant  the  instruction  of  every  one  who 
knows  better,  the  younger  every  older  child ;  as  the  vingodly 
should  hear  eveiy  pious  and  righteous  man,  every  one  taught  of 
God  who  might  instruct  them, — so  should  the  godless  hear  even 
every  good  and  true  word  which  even  the  companion  of  his 
godlessness  may  speak  to  him ;  and  much  more  should  the 
righteous  hear  every  man  who  has  a  word  of  ti'uth  for  him, 
even  if  the  speaker  be  one  of  the  ungodly!  So  much  the  more, 
so  much  the  more  willingly  and  humbly  should  he  hear,  because 
he  would  be  a  righteous  man,  and  yet  remains  only  a  man. 


270  SWIFT  TO  HEAR. 

Whenever  and  whencesoever  tmtli  comes  to  me,  tlie  truth 
which  I  need,  it  comes  to  me  from  God ;  and  I  should  hsten  to 
the  truth,  because  the  opposite  would  be  sin,  and  lead  to  yet 
greater  sin.  Remember  this  ever,  and  you  will  find  that  even 
a  child  may  have  unconsciously  a  word  from  God  to  say  to  the 
highest  saints,  f  hose  who  are  time,  sincere,  and  humble  saints, 
will  receive  with  loyalty  and  obedience  every  such  word  com- 
ino;  from  the  throne  of  their  Kino;.  No  Christian  who  would 
learn  on  till  he  has  learned  all,  and  is  perfect  as  his  Master, 
asks,  when  a  good  word  reaches  his  ear  and  heart,  for  the  hand 
and  seal  of  the  sender,  or  as  to  loho  says  it ;  his  question  is 
always  and  only  as  to  what  is  said.  He  does  not  even  ask 
very  anxiously  as  to  the  how  it  may  have  been  said.  It  is  of 
small  concernment  to  me  whether  that  which  I  ousht  to  hear 
in  righteousness,  and  may  hear  in  grace,  has  been  addressed 
directly  to  myself  by  him  who  speaks — if  only  the  Holy  Ghost 
directs  it  to  my  soul.  Wlien  another  by  my  side  receives  a 
rebuke,  and  the  rebulie  is  equally  suitable  to  me,  I  should 
regard  it  as  addressed  also  to  myself.  Through  the  whole  of 
life  the  rule  holds  good  which  applies  to  the  sermon — If  I  am 
struck,  I  am  aimed  at !  So  can  the  hearer  make  useful  to  his 
own  soul  all  that  scattered,  unavowed,  and  carelessly  tossed 
about  truth,  of  which  there  is  incalculably  more  to  be  found 
in  the  world  than  the  deaf  and  the  blind  observe ;  so  may  the 
Christian  come  out  of  a  frivolous  assembly,  which  he  could  not 
avoid  entering,  bringing  away  many  good  things  for  himself. 
Whether  he  who  teaches  or  rebulces  me  be  a  righteous  or  un- 
righteous man,  whether  the  brother  acknowledge  and  obey  the 
truth  which  comes  from  his  lips  or  not,  whether  he  strikes  me  in 
kindness  or  with  a  bitter  Raca — does  not  affect  the  truth  which 
it  is  for  me  to  hear  and  act  upon.  Woe  to  those  wlfo  think 
themselves  righteous,  and  have  not  yet  learned  that  the  pious 
may  learn  to  advantage  from  the  evil  Avorld,  and  the  servant  of 
God  may  derive  profit  from  his  enemies. 

As  has  been  said,  there  is  truth  enough,  there  are  words  of 
truth  scattered  everywhere,  if  they  could  only  find  the  right 
hearers!  The  word  of  truth  and  of  wisdom  from  above  resounds 
by  no  means  only  in  the  sanctuary ;  they  may  be  heard  also  in 
the  streets- :  learn  only  to  hear  and  distinguish  them  !  So  may 
the  watchman,  though  drunk  himself,  while  he  exhorts  thee  to 


JAMES  I.  19.  271 

sobriety  and  watchfulness,  teach  thee  a  good  lesson  when  he  cries 
aloud  the  time  wliich  hastens  to  eternity.  So  may  the  stroke  of 
the  inanimate  bell  be  as  the  crowing  of  the  cock  to  thee  when 
sharing  Simon  Peter's  carelessness.  All  time  is  full,  fvdl  of 
monitions  of  eternity ;  the  whole  world  of  the  creatures  is  full 
of  references  to  God  the  Creator. 

Therefore  we  said  at  the  outset  that,  finally,  there  is  some- 
thin  o;  for  us  to  hear  in  all  the  world  and  in  the  whole  of  life. 
The  simple  and  wise  saying  of  St  James  is  so  inexhaustible,  that 
it  embraces  the  whole  world,  and  points  to  every  truth  worth 
hearing  extant  in  the  world  ;  or,  are  we  to  suppose,  with  the  ex- 
aggerated Pietists,  that  he  proscribed  and  rejected  as  vanity  and 
lie  all  that  did  not  immediately  spring  from  the  final  and  full 
grace  of  Christ  ?  The  gi'ace  and  truth  of  God  never  from  the 
beginning  utterly  left  the  world  and  mankind  ;  never  left  itself 
without  a  witness.  "  For  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  filleth  the 
world"  (Wisd.  i.  7).  Without  words.  He  speaks  still  in  the 
creatm-e,  even  as  in  its  first  revelation.  The  heavens  declare  the 
glory  of  God  ;  and  here  below  upon  earth  one  day  showeth  forth 
to  another,  one  night  to  another — the  great,  wordless  but  loud, 
concealed  and  yet  manifest,  mystery.  Had  not  men  unlearned 
the  understanding  of  this  speech,  there  would  have  been  np 
heathens.  But  are  we  Christians  past  the  necessity  of  hearing 
that  voice,  as  if  it  ^yere  the  alphabet  which,  as  children,  we  have 
left  behind  ?  God  forbid  !  As  the  New  Testament  fulfils  to 
us  and  consummates  and  opens  the  Old,  so  Eevelation  gene- 
rally leads  us  back  into  the  undei'standing  of  the  creation.  Now 
first  can  we  read  again  the  secret  writing,  now  first  hear  the 
Divine  words  in  things  inanimate.  As  the  parables  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  disclose  the  mysteries  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  in  figures 
which  have  existed  from  the  beginning  of  the  world,  so  have  we 
everywhere  around  us,  if  our  minds  are  open  to  receive  it,  a  most 
impressive  language  of  God.  How  many  are  tliere  who,  saturated 
with  the  Bible,  but  not  soundly  instructed  in  it,  scorn  this  teach- 
ing ;  but  would,  nevertheless,  be  delivered  from  many  delusions 
and  errors,  if  they  would  begin  rightly  to  hear  this  voice  ! 

Further,  O  every  man,  before  thou  hearest  anything  beyond, 
is  not  thine  oion  life  full  of  God's  words  to  thee?  How  nuich 
of  the  intervention  of  Providence  is  thei'e,  even  in  the  midst  of 
all  thy  appointments  for  thyself ;  how  much  wholesome  teaching, 


272  SWIFT  TO  HEAR. 

discipline,  invitation,  and  warning?     All  good  gifts  preacli — 
Give  thanks  to  God  !    All  evil  preaches — Sin  is  the  soul's  ruin  I 
All  jDunishments  and  judgments,  the  evil  consequences  of  evil, 
cry  aloud — He  that  will  not  hear,  must  feel !   The  child's  birnit 
finger  asks — Why  didst  thou  not  listen  when  forbidden  to  touch? 
This  is  a  thousand  tunes  repeated  in  lif e,  from  the  smallest  to  the 
greatest  things ;  and  so,  on  the  other  hand,  are  the  endless  testi- 
monies of  the  good  which  we  receive.     Men,  listen  to  your  own 
experiences;   and  not  merely  to  your  own,  let  the  experience  of 
all  the  world  be  turned  to  your  own  advantage.  Examples  every- 
where speak  loudly  in  your  neighbours ;  mighty  is  the  preach- 
ing of  the  history  of  God's  kingdom  and  of  the  world.    Narrow- 
minded  Christians  neglect  history,  to  their  hurt :  the  good  gift 
of  the  word  of  truth  must  by  all  Plis  children  be  received  when- 
ever their  Father  points  them  to  it.     Much  error,  delusion,  and 
prejudice,  would  retire,  if  they  were  willing  and  swift  to  hear 
the  voice  of  God's  providence,  in  the  world  and  the  Church, 
crying — Do  ye  not  perceive  and  know  that  thus  and  thus  I  deal 
with  the  children  of  men  1     O  that  we  were  not  so  slow  to  hear, 
so  dull  of  apprehension,  so  soon  weary  of  learning !     To  hear 
and  to  learn  is  the  first  step  to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth  and 
regeneration  ;  but  hearing  and  learning  is  also  the  unchanging 
M'ay  to  the  goal  of  our  consummation.     On  the  edge  of  the  grave 
awaits  us  the  last  word,  which  we  must  hear  to  our  final  perfec- 
tion.    This  is  the  wisdom  from  above,  that  we  cease  not  to  he 
easy  to  he  entreated  from  above  (Jas.  iii.  17).     To  those  who  hear, 
the  precious  promise  is  given  —  "Thine  ears  shall  hear  a  word 
behind  thee,  saying,  This  is  the  way,  walk  ye  in  it ;  neither  to  the 
right  hand  nor  to  the  left"  (Is.  xxx.  21).     Thus  did  Christ,  the 
Son  of  God  in  our  humanity,  hear  of  the  Father,  in  the  way  of 
faith  and  obedience,  what  He  spake  to  the  world ;  thus  He  de- 
livered to  us  the  truth  which  He  received  of  the  Father  (John 
viii.  26,  40).     Let  us  through  His  grace  imitate  Plim  in  this ; 
let  us  every  morning  open  our  ears,  that  we  may  hear  like  the 
disciples,  and  not  be  disobedient  or  go  back: — then  will  the 
Lord  give  to  us  also  the  tongue  of  the  learned,  that  we  should 
know  how  to  speah  a  word  in  season  (Is.  1.  4,  5).    Then  shall  we 
not  speak  what  comes,  swiftly  enough,  from  the  evil  or  eri'ing 
heart  to  the  tongue,  and  is  profitable  neither  to  ourselves  nor  to 
oui'  brethren. 


JAMES  I.  19.  273 

vn. 

BUT  SLOW  TO  SPEAK. 

(Ch.  i.  19.) 

Wherefore,  my  beloved  brethren,  let  every  man  be  swift  to  hear,  but  slow 
to  speak,  and  slow  to  wrath. 

Not  only  the  brother,  the  partaker  of  a  heavenly  calling, 
whose  ear  has  been  opened  to  the  perception  of  the  word  of 
truth,  who  now  knows  the  gift  of  God,  and  Who  it  is  that 
speaketJi  to  him — not  only  the  believer  in  God  and  Christ, — should 
hear,  but  eve.ry  man  whose  ear  the  Father  will  yet  open,  to  whom 
and  in  whom  the  Father's  word  is  also  speaking,  for  the  purpose 
of  ^vanning  him  through  hearing  to  faith.  But,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  believer  must  not  suppose  that  only  others  are  bound 
to  hear — as  if  he  had  himself  already  heard  all !  Against  this 
more  or  less  consciously  presumptuous  and  sinful  inertness  to 
hear,  St  James  enforces  the  keen  exhortation,  "  sivift  to  hear ;" 
for,  some  salutary  teaching  may  easily  be  neglected,  and  we  may 
remain  wanting  in  some  gift  of  God  sent  down  to  us  in  vain  ! 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  slow  to  speak  I  In  grace  the  order 
of  natui'e  is  inverted  :  by  natiire  every  man  is  slow  to  hear,  and 
— alas,  much  too  sM'ift  to  speak.  The  wheel  or  course  of  nature, 
urged  by  the  internal  fire  of  the  inborn  character,  as  St  James 
afterwards  (ch.  iii.  6)  profoundly  says,  drives  in  restless  sv\rift- 
ness  especially  the  tongue  of  the  natural  man  :  the  tongue  is  the 
unruly  evil,  full  of  deadly  poison  out  of  the  fountain  of  corrup- 
tion within  us;  no  man  can  tame  it  (ch.  iii.  8-11).  But  by  the 
grace  of  God  it  is  tamed  and  bound ;  consequently,  eveiy  man 
who  stands  and  lives  in  grace,  who  serves  God  in  new  obedience, 
should  hold  his  tongue  in  check,  should  vigilantly  guard  against 
the  evil  which  may  overflow  from  the  remains  of  the  old  man 
in  him.  To  this  belongs  the  evil  and  bitter  lorath  of  man,  the 
opposite  of  the  holy  love  of  God  ;  but,  as  St  James  introduces 
this  in  a  separate  clause,  we  will  reserve  it  for  another  discourse, 
and  ponder  now  the  fruitful  words — hut  sloiv  to  speak  I  Be- 
cause, through  the  deceitfulness  of  Satan,  we  have  not  stood  in 

s 


274  BUT  SLOW  TO  SPEAK. 

the  truth,  but  fallen  into  the  lie,  into  the  self-sufficiency  and  re- 
bellion which  will  maintain  its  own  word, — all  our  own  words 
contradict  and  thwart  the  wholesome  hearing  of  the  word  from 
above ;  in  order,  therefore,  rightly  to  hear,  we  must  cease  to 
speak  and  keep  silence.  Thus  St  Peter  repeats  for  the  New 
Testament  the  ancient  words  of  David  :  "  He  that  will  love  hfe, 
let  him  refrain  his  tongue  from  evil,  and  his  lips  that  they  speak 
no  guile"  (1  Pet.  iii.  10)  — that  his  own  tongue  may  not  conr 
tinually  speak  guile  to,  and  deceive,  his  own  heart  (Jas.  i.  26). 
"Whoso  keepeth  his  mouth  and  his  tongue,"  says  the  Wis- 
dom of  Solomon,  "keepeth  his  soul  from  trouble:"  "he  that 
keepeth  his  tongue  keepeth  his  life ;  but  he  that  openeth  wide 
his  lips  shall  have  destruction  :"  "death  and  life  are  in  the 
power  of  the  tongue  :  and  they  that  love  it  shall  eat  of  the  fruit 
thereof"  (Prov.  xxi.  13,  xiii.  3,  xviii.  21). 

Let  us  endeavour  now  thoroughly  to  investigate  in  order 
what  kinds  of  evil  and  dangerous  speaking  men  are  liable  to, 
unless  they  give  strict  heed.  The  first  and  the  worst  is  obvi- 
ously that  direct  contradiction  of  the  truth  of  God,  the  tendency 
to  which  is  in  us  all, — implanted  in  our  hearts  by  him  who  was 
a  liar  from  the  beginning.  So  at  the  first  the  serpent  spoke, 
when  the  first  word  of  scruple.  Yea,  hath  God  said  ?  was  more 
•  daringly  continued,  That  lohich  God  said  is  not  true ;  ye  shall 
not  surely  die  the  death  !  From  that  time  men  have  consented 
to  the  liar's  words  in  their  own  hearts ;  and  all  who  love  and 
hold  fast  that  lie  fall  into  ruin.  Such  are  those  whom  the 
Epistle  to  the  Romans  calls  contentious,  that  is,  who  contend 
with  God,  and  obey  not  the  truth  (Rom.  ii.  8). 

This  spirit  of  contradiction  in  ovu*  evil  nature  begins  from 
earliest  childhood  to  rise  against  the  authority  of  those  set  over 
us  in  the  place  of  God.  Mark  how  prompt  the  little  ones  are 
to  learn  and  speak  out  the  No  :  that  should  never  be  regarded 
by  us  as  a  trifling  thing,  or  as  the  innocent  awakening  of  inde- 
pendence, but  as  the  early  expression  of  a  deep  con'uption. 
And  when  they  are  obliged  to  hear — these  weak  and  silly  child- 
ren— when  their  No  does  not  succeed,  and  they  know  it,  with  all 
kinds  of  questioning  lohj  they  interfere  and  protest,  before  they 
hear  and  obey.  From  these  self-wise  children,  if  they  do  not 
learn  God's  wisdom,  the  grown-up  people  spring,  who  are  never 
in  heart  subject  to  God,  but  always  and  in  all  things  have  some 


JAMES  I.  19.  275 

controversy  with  tlie  law  of  duty: — the  gainsaying,  answering 
again,  servants  and  maidens  (Tit.  ii.  9)  ;  the  reasoning  subjects, 
who,  at  least  with  their  tongues,  fight  against  law  and  govern- 
ment, and  would  carry  their  lawlessness  so  far  that  at  length 
no  man  must  say  to  any  man  anything  in  the  name  of  God,  or 
in  His  name  utter  any  command.  All  will  govern  and  teach 
themselves.  And  yet  we  see  very  plainly  what  comes  of  all 
this  speaking  :  every  man  will  be  in  the  right ;  every  one  opposes 
in  the  spirit  of  selfishness  and  insurrection. 

The  same  spirit  of  contradiction  proceeds  to  the  utterance  of 
the  tongue — only  still  more  bold  and  free,  as  if  we  all  had  the 
greatest  right — against  other  men  generally,  if  they  have  any- 
thing to  say  to  us.  O  how  sioift  we  are  to  retort  and  give  the 
answer  back,  whenever  we  are  instructed  and  reproved  !  How 
do  we  fence  ourselves  with  stiffnecked  folly  against  receiving 
the  good  and  gentle  word !  We  have  a  thousandfold  repulsion 
ready :  They  are  not  right,  and  we  know  better  !  or,  Wliat  con- 
cerns it  them,  and  why  should  they  take  upon  themselves  to 
instruct  1  We  are  swift  to  oppose  our  neighbour  with  the  word 
of  that  Israelite  to  Moses — Intendest  thou  to  kill  me,  as  thou 
killedst  the  Egyptian?  (Ex.  ii.  14) — as  if  that  could  alter  the 
truth  of  the  word  spoken,  and  invalidate  our  duty  to  obey  it ! 
Ye  men  who  so  resolutely  will  have  the  last  word  one  against 
the  other,  think  of  the  judgment  in  which  God  will  maintain 
the  last  word  against  all ;  when  it  will  be  said  of  the  eternal 
amazement  of  so  many — But  he  loas  speechless  !  Are  ye  so 
bold  as  to  resist  with  uttered  words  the  word  of  God  Himself, 
the  Scripture  and  the  preaching  sent  of  God  ?  That  is  the  sad 
sin  over  which  the  faithful,  longsuffering  God  now  laments — All 
day  long  I  stretched  out  Mine  hands  to  a  disobedient  and  gainsay- 
ing people !  (Rom.  x.  21).  So  the  Son  of  God,  through  whom 
the  Father  spoke  at  the  last,  experienced  and  endured  the  con- 
tradiction of  sinners  against  Himself  (Heb.  xii.  3); — the  Gospel 
of  St  John  gives  us  many  examples.  Thus  is  it  ever  in  His 
Christendom,  from  the  daring  contradiction  of  open  unbelief 
down  to  the  disguised  and  unobeying  infidelity  of  those  who  yet 
say  that  they  believe  in  Him.  Christians,  who  would  learn  in 
order  to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth,  be  on  your  guard  against  dis- 
puting, which  leads  not  to  that  knowledge ;  against  the  zeal  of 
dogmatising,  which,  instead  of  listening  to  the  word  of  another, 


276  BUT  SLOW  TO  SPEAK. 

is  only  thinking  what  to  reply  !  Take  heed  that  you  resort  not 
to  repelling  artifices,  contradicting  and  complaining,  when  you 
receive  exhortation ;  lest,  when  yoiu'  conscience  is  forced  to  ad- 
mit the  truth,  your  tongue  be  too  ready  on  that  very  account  to 
contradict !  Guard  against  the  disposition,  thence  springing  and 
thither  leading,  to  speak  against  the  salutary  dealings  of  God 
by  which  He  speaks  to  you  in  your  life  !  The  slightest  touch 
of  contradiction  often  provokes  the  full  bitterness  of  rebellion  ; 
but  it  is  His  design,  not  to  vex  the  soul,  but  to  make  it  humble 
and  silent. 

When  we  no  longer  withstand  the  truth  Avhich  comes  to  us, 
we  often  have  at  least  apologies  and  evasions  :  this  is  another 
kind  of  naughty  speaking,  when  we  should  humbly  and  sin- 
cerely hear.  Thus  Adam  began  in  Paradise,  and  it  still  goes 
on ;  St  James  has  already  spoken  of  it  in  ver.  13.  After  the 
sin  we  are  not  guilty  in  the  judgment,  but  in  the  end  rather  the 
Lord  who  judgeth  us  :  we  were  deceived,  misled,  forced,  and 
could  not  do  otherwise ;  circumstances  led  us  into  it ;  it  was 
our  weakness,  conjoined  with  a  wicked  world  and  hot  tempta- 
tion. Of  all  this  we  speak  not  here ;  but  refer,  on  the  other 
hand,  to  the  cunning  readiness  with  which,  before  the  word 
which  woidd  condemn  our  sin,  we  anticipate  it  by  shifts  and 
evasions  which  are  really  based  upon  a  secret  rejection  of  the 
judgment  of  truth.  In  this  the  natural  man  has  learned  skill 
from  tlie  craft  of  Satan.  Hence  arises  nearly  all  the  perver- 
sion of  Scripture,  which  only  aims  to  turn  it  away  from  our  con- 
science and  heart ;  the  perverse  exposition  of  the  commandment, 
that  it  may  not  condemn  us,  as  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount 
teaches;  the  question.  Who  is  my  neighbour?  and  so  forth. 
We  have  but  to  read  the  whole  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  and 
mark  how  the  man,  with  whom  the  Apostle  has  to  do,  inter- 
jects his  evasions  and  demurs,  until  he  utters  at  last  the  bold, 
Why  doth  He  yet  find  fault '?  (Kom..  ix.  19).  Now,  the  clear 
word  of  God  is  not  plain  enough,  so  that  we  have  much  to  say 
about  it  at  first ;  then  the  simple  and  clear  exposition  must  be 
forced,  for  we  believe  that  the  letter  is  not  to  be  so  literally 
pressed ;  now,  we  bring  something  that  we  have  found,  but 
only  that  we  may  not  be  found  ourselves  as  simple  hearers. 
And,  as  with  God's  immediate  word,  so  also  we  deal  with  every 
word  of  man  which  condemns  us  for  God's  sake  and  the  truth's ; 


JAMES  I.  19.  277 

we  are  always  too  s^vift  to  justify  ourselves  instead  of  receiving 
condemnation,  to  maintain  our  own  superior  knowledge  rather 
than  receive  instruction. 

On  that  very  account  we  are  so  swift  mth  our  impertinent 
and  officious  judgment  of  others,  in  which  we  forget  ourselves  : 
a  new  and  most  fruitful  domain  of  the  speaking  here  condemned  ! 
Before  we  rightly  understand  anything,  we  have  our  opinion 
ready ;  before  we  have  received  the  word  thoroughly  to  our  own 
amendment,  we  carry  it  round  for  the  instruction  and  amend- 
ment of  others.  We  would,  in  our  heart's  cunning,  appear  to 
be  what  we  are  not ;  and  the  most  obvious  help  to  this  counter- 
feiting is  the  wise  word  with  which  we  exalt  ourselves  over  our 
neighboui'.  Therefore,  everything  that  happens  falls  under  our 
ready  comment,  so  that  every  man  has  a  daily  news-sheet  upon 
his  tongue ;  we  are  masters  of  the  world's  course,  have  a  word  of 
judgment  for  everything  that  occurs  ;  as  if  that  which  God  per- 
mits our  eyes  to  see  and  oui'  ears  to  hear  for  our  instruction, 
was  permitted  rather  that  we  might  deliver  our  thoughts  upon 
it !  We  are,  fm'ther,  self-appointed  judges  of  all  that  is  done 
by  others ;  we  forget  altogether  that  we  should  learn  from  it 
lessons  for  ourselves,  and  prefer  to  pour  forth  our  foolish  com- 
ments of  wisdom.  We  know  how  this  man  or  that  mio;ht  have 
done  better,  how  we  would  have  done  it  in  his  place  ;  without 
knowine;  that  we  mig-ht  instead  have  done  much  worse.  O  the  mis- 
chief  of  this  judging,  criticising,  whispering,  backbiting,  gossiping 
about  every  event  in  tlie  world,  and  every  action  of  the  men 
around  us !  Against  this  Sirach's  son  cries  out — "What  God  hath 
commanded  thee,  think  thereupon  with  diligence :  Be  not  curious 
in  things  which  are  not  in  thy  office ;  for  more  things  are  showed 
thee  than  thou  canst  settle"  (Ecclus.  iii.  22,  23).  If  our  judg- 
ment is  right,  all  the  more  unright  is  it  that  we  should  turn 
into  a  mere  external  thing,  to  be  talked  about,  that  teaching 
and  truth  which  is  given  us  for  oiu*  silent  hearing  and  profit — 
placing  the  speaking  precisely  in  the  place  of  hearing.  Every 
man  would  be  a  teacher,  few  suffer  themselves  to  be  taught. 
This  is  too  much  and  too  long  the  failing  of  Christians,  much 
more  so  than  they  are  generally  willing  to  admit  or  condemn  in 
themselves.  Is  not  this  vdth  many  the  first  sign,  though  not 
the  right  one,  of  their  having  apprehended  a  truth,  that  they 
are  at  once  anxious  to  inculcate  it  upon  others  ?     The  faithful 


278  BUT  SLOW  TO  SrEAK. 

pastor,  whose  object  it  is  to  bring  his  people  rightly  to  hear, 
finds  this  among  his  great  troubles,  that  their  swift  tongues  come 
so  much  into  collision  with  his  teaching  and  exhortation  ;  how 
often  it  is  needful  that  he  should  remind  those  whom  he  visits 
in  their  sickness  or  otherwise — I  am  not  come  that  we  may  dis- 
com'se  together  as  being  both  wise,  but  that  I  may  say  to  you 
some  spiritual  truth  that  you  need !  How  many  Christians  will 
hold  to  it,  that  God's  word  is  matter  about  which  people  must 
talk  together — God's  word,  which  always  should  directly  speak 
to  our  hearts  !  Dear  brethren,  examine  yourselves  by  this  and 
all  that  has  been  already  said,  and  see  whether  this  evil  clings 
to  yourselves.  Guard  against  the  so  much  loved  "  pious  con- 
versations," which  are  often  so  unprofitable,  which  are  often 
no  more  than  mere  babblings  and  idle  talk !  Do  not  talk 
aioay  from  your  hearts  the  power  and  the  blessing  of  saving 
truth !  JVIiserable  is  it  that  the  grand  and  weighty  words  of  the 
Bible — sin,  grace,  repentance,  faith,  sanctification,  prayer — and 
the  most  piercing  and  the  most  instructive  of  its  sayings,  so 
swiftly  glide  over  our  tongues.  And  how  easily  and  unprofitably 
the  name  of  God  springs  to  our  lips  !  Luther  says  :  "  The  devil 
is  a  knave,  and  has  no  objection  that  the  name  of  the  Lord 
should  be  on  people's  tongues,  if  he  himself  lies  under  them." 

Similarly,  we  speak  quite  enough  about  earthly  things ;  and 
that  is  a  kind  of  speaking  against  which  we  should  be  on  our 
guard.  It  may  seem  to  be  at  least  indifferent ;  but  as  being 
mere  speaking  it  is  evil,  for  it  takes  the  place  of  hearing.  He 
that  speaks  cannot,  at  the  tr'me  that  he  is  speaking,  hear.  But 
how  little  pleasure,  and  how  little  practice,  in  the  art  of  holy 
silence  is  there  even  in  the  Christian  world ;  how  little  stillness 
of  heart  for  that  always  necessary  silence,  when  foolish  custom 
requires  the  conversation  to  be  kept  up  without  pause  in  every 
company !  Can  that  be  good ;  and  is  it  necessary  that  it  should 
be  so?  In  how  many  companies  would  every  one  have  the 
word,  but  no  one  receive  it ;  and  when  all  is  over,  and  the  guests 
go  home,  what  have  they  got  from  the  whole,  as  men  even  for 
time,  and  as  Christians  for  eternity  ?  This  they  have  gotten,  that 
it  may  be  said  of  them,  They  bring  their  yeai's  to  an  end  as  a  tale 
that  is  told!  (Ps.  xc.  9).  But  living  and  dying  is  too  solemn  for 
any  hour  to  be  spent  in  idle  tales,  which  might  be  my  last  hour. 
Even  if  thou  sayesi^  I  speak  nothing  that  is  evil !  it  is  bad  enough 


JAMES  I.  19.  279 

to  say  that.  Yciy  seldom  wilt  thou  be  able  to  say  that ;  for  he 
Avho  speaks  often  and  much  will  hardly  fail  to  intermingle  foolish 
words.  But,  were  it  not  so,  thou  shouldst  speak  what  is  good, 
thou  shouldst  hear  what  is  good ;  for  that  thou  livest  thy  years,  and 
days,  and  hours.  This  the  foolish  talkers  know  full  well  in  their 
consciences  ;  their  idle  talk  is  not  so  innocent  as  it  appears ;  they 
talk  so  vehemently,  in  many  cases,  -simply  to  prevent  the  good 
word  from  coming  home  to  themselves ;  they  go  up  and  down  the 
trifling  world  only  that  they  may  avoid  entering  into  themselves. 
To  speak  gently  as  possible,  many  remain  their  life  long  like  little 
children  who  would  show  that  they  can  speak,  and  think  aloud. 
And  is  that  seemly  for  adult  men,  or  children  of  God  ?  And 
what  trivialities  are  often  the  unworthy  matter  of  our  con- 
verse !  Again,  how  do  the  greatest,  most  important,  matters  run 
through  the  foolish  babbling,  without  ha"sdng  the  ear  of  the  heart 
opened  to  hear  them  !  The  Creator  gave  us  two  ears  and  one 
mouth — we  all  know  why,  as  the  proverb  says.  "Women  hear  not, 
and  will  not  be  talked  to,"  is  a  common  saying.  And  why  not  ? 
Because  they  themselves  have  always  so  much  to  say.  But  there 
are  men  enough  who  need  the  apostolical  warning — Let  no  cor- 
rupt conversation  proceed  out  of  yoiu:  mouth  !  Let  no  man  de- 
ceive you  with  vain  icords ;  for  because  of  these  things  the  wrath 
of  God  Cometh  upon  the  children  of  disohedience.  Therefore  be 
ye  not  partakers  with  them  (Eph.  iv.  29,  v.  6,  7).  By  these 
words  are  meant  also  all  that  empty  babbling  which  dissipates 
the  thoughts,  which  makes  a  man  to  shut  out  the  Holy  Spirit 
and  the  voice  of  God  in  the  conscience.  There  are  many  dili- 
gent church-goers,  who  after  the  Divine  service  industriously 
chatter  away  the  effect  of  what  they  have  heard,  and  lose  all 
the  benefit  of  the  holy  day  which  they  desecrate,  instead  of  going 
into  secret  to  recall  the  words  which  they  have  received  into 
their  hearts,  and  to  supplicate  the  presence  and  blessing  of  God 
to  confirm  His  words.  Idle  talking,  therefore,  is  ftot  merely 
a  misuse  of  the  tongue,  but  it  sqiianders  the  season  of  grace, 
hinders  the  hearing  that  might  be  salutary,  and  robs  the  good 
word  of  truth  of  its  rights  and  influence.  This  is  most  manifest 
in  the  tumultuous  life  of  the  ungodly,  who  are  miserable  when 
reduced  to  stillness.  As  the  soldiers  march  over  the  battle-field 
with  sound  of  fife  and  drum  to  drown  the  complaining  sighs  of 
the  dying,  so  do  these  ungodly  make  loud  noise  that  they  may 


280  BUT  SLOW  TO  SPEAK. 

drown  the  gentle  word  of  lamentation — Thou  art  destroying 
thyself  !  Thou  art  passing  over  the  field  of  thine  own  slaughter  ! 
If  a  man  must  go  away  from  home  to  find  contentment,  it  is 
a  sign  that  he  is  secretly  unhappy.  He  can  have  no  peace  in 
his  own  heart  who  must  always  live  abroad,  and  for  ever  lets 
his  thouo-hts  roam  at  the  command  of  his  tongue  over  all  the 
earth.  Those  who  are  truly  and  fundamentally  awakened  he- 
come  quiet :  that  is  the  first  sure  sign  that  they  have  begun  to 
hear  the  word  from  above.  Be  not  hasty  with  thy  mouth,  and 
let  not  thine  heart  be  rash  to  speak  anything  before  God;  for 
God  is  in  heaven  and  thou  upon  earth,  therefore  let  thy  words 
be  few  (Eccles.  v.  1).  He  who  feels  this,  and  begins  to  hear, 
ceases  to  speak ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  that  he  may  hear, 
he  must  refrain  from  speaking.  He  that  begins  to  hear  must 
become  silent ;  but  it  is  only  the  first  hearing  of  God's  voice 
which  silences  our  own  incessant  speaking. 

But  the  incessant  speaking  of  men  may  be  thought  an  ex- 
aggeration. No  man  is  continually  speaking,  it  may  be  said. 
But  if  we  look  into  the  deepest  meaning  of  St  James'  word,  we 
shall  note  that  all  the  improj)er  speaking  with  which  we  have  been 
dealing  may  have  an  internal  existence.  It  is  with  the  speaking 
as  with  the  hearing.  As  the  conscience  gives  testimony  within 
our  hearts  by  accusing  thoughts,  and  the  Spirit  in  our  conscience 
by  convincing  or  instructing  word,  so  also  in  our  hearts  arise 
the  excusing  thoughts  and  words,  the  contradictions  of  the 
rebellious  spirit.  Every  man  carries  on,  as  long  as  he  lives,  an 
inward  colloquy  with  himself.  Many  seem  outwardly  still,  but 
within  there  is  the  roar  of  the  market-place ;  thoughts  and 
images  in  tumultuous  confusion,  which  utterly  prevent  them 
from  hearing  what  God  may  directly  or  indirectly  speak  to  their 
hearts.  And  does  not  that  evil  still  adhere  to  our  natm*e,  be- 
loved brethren  ?  The  talking  of  the  inner  babbler  accompanies 
and  persecutes  us  even  under  the  pulpit,  when  we  read  the 
Scriptures,  when  we  are  engaged  in  prayer,  to  prevent  if  pos- 
sible our  hearing  the  word  or  the  answer  of  God !  O  let  us 
notwithstanding  hear,  let  us  eagerly  liearJcen,  that  we  may  press 
forward  to  obey  !  Let  us  stifle  all  vain  babbling  within  by  the 
rational  word  of  Zophar  the  Naamathite — Should  not  the  multi- 
tude of  words  be  answered  ?  (Job  xi.  2). 

Then,  when  we  have  heard,  fundamentally  heard,  may  we 


JAMES  I.  19.  281 

not  speak?  Assuredly;  for  St  James  exhorts  us  only  to  be 
slow  and  pmdent  to  speak ;  he  would  not  impose  silence  upon 
us,  as  Pythagoras  did  upon  his  disciples ;  he  would  not  make 
Trappists  or  Carthusians  of  us,  whose  tongues  can  only  utter 
memento  mori.  But  what  we  speak  should  come  from  the 
truth  which  we  have  learned,  from  the  wisdom  which  we  have 
received,  to  the  honour  of  God,  and  to  the  profit  of  our  neigh- 
bour. "  The  lips  of  talkers  will  be  telling  such  things  as  per- 
tain not  unto  them :  but  such  as  have  understandino;  weigh 
their  words  in  a  balance.  The  heart  of  fools  is  in  their  mouth : 
but  the  mouth  of  the  wise  is  in  their  heart "  (Ecclus.  xxi.  25 
26).  The  tongue  also  is  a  member  which  we  should  consecrate 
to  the  service  of  righteousness,  truth,  and  love.  Let  him  that 
hath  spoken  evil  and  false,  do-  so  no  more  ;  but  rather  let  him 
get  something  good  by  hearing,  that  he  may  have  to  give  to 
him  that  needeth — something  good  to  the  use  of  edifying,  that 
it  may  minister  gi'ace  unto  the  hearers  (Eph.  iv.  28,  29).  O 
how  needful  is  edification ;  and  how  do  God's  poor  people  hunger 
for  the  bread  of  God,  of  Avhich  man  liveth  !  Should  we  not 
always  be  ready  to  place  before  them  what  God  hath  given  to 
us?  We  should  assuredly  not  merely  be  always  ready  with  an 
answer,  when  the  reason  of  our  faith  is  demanded  (1  Pet.  iii.  1 5) ; 
we  should  also,  as  the  Lord's  disciples,  make  His  word  our  own 
— I  will  preach  righteousness  in  the  great  congregation :  lo,  I 
will  not  refrain  my  lips !  (Ps.  xl.  9). 

But  then  we  must  be  slow  to  speak,  prudent  and  not  preci- 
pitate, even  in  the  words  of  an  earnest  testimony,  instruction, 
and  exliortation  !  Let  us  see  to  it  that  we  rightly  hit  the 
Where  and  the  When,  and  not  cast  our  pearls  before  swine. 
Let  us  avoid  the  many  words,  which  are  not  profitable  either  in 
preaching  or  in  prayer,  either  in  brotherly  exhortation  or  in 
teaching.  One  word,  spoken  in  its  season,  is  like  an  apple  of 
gold  in  a  frame  of  silver  (Prov.  xxv,  11) — it  is  of  more  worth 
and  efficiency  than  a  hundred  others.  "  There  is  that  speaketh 
like  the  piercings  of  a  sword,"  though  he  may  mean  to  utter 
-words  of  true  wisdom ;  " but  the  tongxie  of  the  wise  is  health  " 
(Prov.  xii.  18,  xxvi.  9).  A  wJiolesome  tongue  is  a  tree  of  life 
(Prov.  XV.  4),  and  bears  its  precious  fruit ;  but  that  must 
always  be  a  sloio  and  prudent  tongue.  Therefore,  to  end  all, 
not  sicift  to  speak,  and  fill  the  Christian  world  with  words  with 


282  SLOW  TO  WRATH. 

out  power  and  fruit,  of  which  it  has  a  superfluity'  ah'eady ;  but 
in  alL  our  speaking,  as  well  as  in  all  our  actions,  study  to  be 
profitable  to  others  and  to  ourselves,  to  bear  testimony  to  the 
truth,  and  to  advance  the  work  of  righteousness  in  love. 


VIII. 

SLOW   TO   WRATH. 

(Ch.  i.  19,  20.) 

Wherefore,  my  beloved  brethren,  let  every  man  be  swift  to  bear,  but  slovf 
to  speak,  and  slow  to  wratb.  For  the  wrath  of  man  worketh  not  that 
which  is  right  before  God. 

Of  all  the  sins  which  flow  from  inconsiderate  and  unbridled 
swiftness  to  speak,  and  which  are  the  outbursts  of  our  natural 
corruption,  St  James  singles  out  and  makes  solemnly  promi- 
nent one  as  the  chief — that  is,  wi^ath.  But  it  strikes  us  at  once 
that,  even  as  he  does  not  absolutely  forbid  all  speaking,  so  his 
warning  only  says — slow  to  wrath  !  And  rightly  so ;  for  how 
could  he  absolutely  denounce  all  wrath,  when  there  must  neces- 
sarily be  a  good  and  holy  indignation  ?  Such  is,  first  of  all, 
the  wrath  of  God,  spoken  of  throughout  His  word,  and  attested 
in  act  by  all  His  government  of  the  world  and  His  kingdom  : 
from  the  time  that  the  wrath  of  God  was  first  revealed  from 
heaven  against  all  ungodliness  and  unrighteousness  of  men, 
who  hold  the  truth  in  unrighteousness  (Rom.  i.  18),  down  to 
the  great  day  of  His  wrath,  which  is  also  called  the  wrath  of 
the  Lamb,  when  nothing  but  the  cup  of  His  wrath  shall  be 
given,  and  the  great  wine-press  of  the  wrath  of  God  shall  be 
trodden  (Rev.  vi.  IG,  17,  xiv.  10,  19).  In  opposition  to  this  St 
James  places  manifestly  the  wrath  of  inen,  ungodly  and  unjus- 
tifiable, which  springs  from  the  loveless  nature  of  man  ;  but 
he  at  the  same  time  presupposes  that  a  man  of  God  may,  in 
the  Spirit  and  the  name  of  God,  entertain  a  just  and  proper 
wrath.  Therefore,  in  respect  to  the  wrath,  as  in  respect  to  the 
speaking,  he  makes  a  distinction  ;  and  requires  that  we*  be 
slow  and  cautious,  lest  we  miss  in  this  matter  the  line  of  recti- 


JAMES  I.  J 9,  20.  283 

tude.  For,  there  certainly  is  a  good  wratli  and  zeal ;  but 
there  is  a  inanifestly  evil  wrath,  and  also  that  which  is  only 
seemin(jly  good. 

"VVe  all  know^,  through  ourselves  and  others,  by  experience 
and  observation,  what  is  an  evidently  wicked  lorath.  This  rises 
in  the  unrighteous  man  when  the  truth  is  spoken  to  him  which 
he  will  not  hear  and  accept ;  when  this  ngood  gift  is  sent  down 
to  him  by  God,  the  evil  man  within  him  rages,  shows  its  malig- 
nity, and  pours  out  its  rash  contradiction.  This  wicked  wrath 
may  spring  also  from  his  self-complacency,  when  his  beloved 
self  is  wounded,  though  the  injury  may  be  but  slight.  Against 
all  at  once  Moses  speaks,  "  Thou  shalt  not  hate  thy  brother  in 
thine  heart :  thou  shalt  in  any  wise  rebuke  thy  neighbour,  and 
not  suffer  sin  upon  him;  thou  shalt  not  avenge,  nor  bear  grudge" 
(Lev.  xix.  17,  18)  ; — and  we  Christians  know  the  like  words  of 
our  Master,  Lawgiver,  and  Judge,  "  Whosoever  is  angry  with 
his  brother  without  a  cause,  shall  be  in  danger  of  the  judgment!" 
(Matt.  V.  22).  Thou,  sinful  man,  as  such  hast  no  right  to  judge 
and  avenge  ;  for,  thy  neighbour's  sin  does  thee  no  wrong,  thy 
equal  sin  has  long  ago  deserved  all  this  and  more.  And  even 
when  thy  proud  and  bitter  wrath  finds  vent  only  in  words  of 
reproach,  the  text  speaks  of  them  as  an  act.  The  wTath  of  man 
worketh  not  that  which  is  right  before  God  :  that  is,  at  the  out- 
set, the  words  are  before  God  equivalent  to  acts,  for  they  pro- 
ceed from  the  heart  and  its  evil  treasure  like*  the  works ;  they 
are  also  fruits  by  which  the  tree  is  know^n,  and  on  the  ground 
of  which  the  judgment  of  the  last  day  will  be  pronounced.  It 
is  thus  that  God  sees  and  judges  :  He  does  not  regard  (like 
foolish  men  generally)  the  evil  effect  or  hurt  which  has  resulted 
or  may  result  from  a  wicked  word,  but  the  spirit  from  which  it 
springs  and  to  which  it  bears  witness.  If  the  blinded  king- 
slayer  had,  like  Shimei,  reviled  the  Lord's  Anointed  before  the 
people  with  his  tongue,  instead  of  madly  seizing  the  weapons  of 
death  which  God  turned  aside,  it  might  have  been  even  worse 
iniquity  and  heavier  guilt.  There  are  poisonous  words  of  cal- 
culated malice  which  may  outweigh  in  their  malignant  effects 
many  a  malicious  act.  There  are  slanders  which  are  among 
the  bitterest  fruits  of  the  corrupt  tree.  There  may  be  a  persistent 
injury  and  wrong  done  to  an  enemy  by  words  alone,  in  the  very 
spirit  and  manner  of  the  devil.     So  there  is  a  blasphemy  against 


284  SLOW  TO  WRATH 

the  kiiOAvn  truth  of  God  which,  as  tlie  sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost, 
becomes  unpardonable. 

But  if  the  word  of  wrath  doeth  unrighteousness,  it  also  ivorketh 
unrighteousness,  as  far  as  in  it  lies;  and  this  is  further  the 
meaning  of  St  James.  Afterwards  in  ch.  iii.  he  will  teach  us 
most  impressively  the  power  and  significance  of  words  ;  and 
show,  what  we  now  oiily  hint  at  by  anticipation,  that  through- 
out the  history  of  the  world  the  tongue  hath  done  great  things, 
and  that  good  or  evil  words  work  righteousness  or  unrighteous- 
ness like  widespreading  acts.  The  word  is  a  fruit  whose  seed  is 
in  itself ;  and  who  can  apprehend  or  desci'ibe  the  secret  influ- 
ence which  in  this  or  in  that  direction,  and  sooner  or  later,  that 
seed  may  grow  to  ?  One  word  gives  occasion  for  another,  re\'il- 
ing  leads  to  counter-reviling — as  we  know  full  well.  Finally, 
when  we  begin  to  give  our  wrath  free  com'se  upon  our  lips,  it 
soon  grows  impatient  of  that  limit  and  takes  to  itself  hands  and 
feet,  becoming  an  accomplished  act.  It  is  vain  to  say — I  only 
spoke  and  did  nothing.  On  the  contrary,  our  confession  must 
too  often  be — I  meant  only  to  speak,  but  in  my  -wrath  I  have 
thus  and  thus  done  !  The  wrathful  man  loses  the  dominion 
over  himself,  being  blinded  and  possessed  by  passion  ;  he  is  be- 
yond the  restraint  of  thought,  hears  and  sees  nothing,  and  his 
rage  rages  like  a  fire  of  hell,  which  indeed  it  is.  Ten  thousand 
examples  show  into  what  abysses  this  may  cast  a  man.  Therefore 
St  James  does  not  say,  Man  in  his  wrath ; — but.  The  lorath  of 
man,  when  it  hurries  him  away,  after  the  reins  have  been  given 
to  his  tongue, — worketh  that  which  is  not  right  before  God. 
"  For  wrath  killeth  the  foolish  man,  and  indignation  slayeth  the 
silly  one"  (Job  v.  2).  "  An  angry  man  stirrethup  strife,  and  a 
furious  man  aboundeth  in  transgression"  (Prov.  xxix.  22).  The 
life  of  every  man,  and  the  history  of  every  house,  gives  exam- 
ples enough  ;  be  warned  therefore,  lest  this  happen  to  thee  ;  be 
on  thy  guard  against  thine  anger,  for  thou  art  but  a  man,  in 
whom  this  poison  exists.  Alas !  it  is  so,  though  it  should  not  be. 
For  what  is  man,  a  sinner,  and  miserable,  that  he.  should  rise  up 
before  God,  under  whose  mercy  he  lives  and  breathes,  and  dare 
to  be  transported  into  wrath?  But  this  unholy  passion  is  so 
deeply  interwoven  in  man's  nature,  that  we  seek  in  vain  the 
saint  in  whom  the  danger  of  its  excess  is  utterly  quenched. 

But  the  most   perverse  and   wicked  wrath   of   man  rises 


JAMES  I.  19,  20.  285 

against  God,  against  that  which  is  in  the  sight  of  God  right, 
especially  against  the  well-merited,  wholesome  punishment  and 
discipline  which  comes  from  the  hand  of  God.  O  that  we  at 
least,  dear  h^ethren,  might  be  made  free  from  that  wrath, 
through  grace  in  the  obedience  of  the  truth  !  O  that  we  may 
learn  to  receive  meekly,  as  from  God,  what  righteously  is  our 
due  !  Tobit  murmured  not  ao;ainst  God  when  he  lost  his  siufht, 
but  gave  alms,  and  increased  in  the  fear  of  the  Lord,  and 
praised  Him  (Tob.  xiv.  2).  Of  how  few  may  that  be  said  in 
their  calamities  !  To  how  many  is  the  Lord's  word  to  Jonah 
appropriate,  when  things  go  not  after  their  will — Doest  thou 
well  to  be  angry  about  the  gourd  *?  Even  Jonah  the  Prophet 
said  in  bhnd  anger  to  the  Lord — I  do  well  to  be  angry  even 
unto  death !  (Jon.  iv.  9).  Take  heed  to  avoid  such  wrath  and 
rashness,  which  would  be  laughable  were  it  ever  right  to  laugh 
at  sin.  Become  not  like  the  ungodly  and  the  fools,  who 
when  God  Himself  has  set  something  in  opposition  to  their  self- 
will,  revenge  it  upon  all  that  come  too  near  to  them.  Or,  has 
a  man  actually  done  you  injustice  ?  Even  then,  let  not  others 
suffer  for  yom-  wi-ath  ;  and  let  not  the  offender  himself ;  restrain 
your  wrath,  which  in  you  is  an  equal  offence.  Whatever  right 
you  may  have  in  the  quarrel,  no  sinful  man  has  a  right  to  be 
angry  and  avenge  himself.  "  Avenge  not  yom'selves,  beloved, 
but  give  place  unto  wrath ;  for  it  is  ^vritten,  Vengeance  is  Mine, 
I  vn\\  repay,  saith  the  Lord"  (Rom.  xii.  19).  To  suffer  un- 
justly is  better  than  to  act  unjustly ;  but  yoiir  wrath  alwaj-s 
worketh  unrighteousness,  because  it  is  an  invasion  of  God's 
prerogative,  and  you  can  never  safely  apply  the  standard  of 
right  and  of  wrong  for  yourself.  Revile  not  again,  therefore, 
when  reviled ;  rule  your  wrath  in  meekness  and  patience,  ac- 
cording to  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  ;  speak  not  in  wrath ;  at  least 
act  not  in  any  such  manner  as  your  retm'ning  self-possession 
would  repent  of.  This  is  the  meaning  of  the  Apostle's  word 
taken  fi'om  the  Psalms — Be  ye  ayigry,  and  sin  not!  in  wliich 
he  allows  a  holy  indignation,  but  adds,  with  reference  to  the 
evil — Let  not  the  sun  go  down  upon  your  wTath  (Eph.  iv.  26). 
That  slowly  digested  anger,  fed  through  days  and  nights,  ripened 
in  silent  plans, — how  wilful  and  how  fearful  is  its  sinfulness  ! 
But  also  the  sudden  wrath,  Avhich  hm'ries  a  man  away,  is  no 
less  sin ;  and  God  will  never  allow  the  foolish  and  daring  ex- 


286  SLOW  TO  WRATH. 

cuse — "  I  was  made  to  sin  by  others.  My  anger  spoke  and 
acted,  and  not  myself!"  O  wicked  man,  who  could  make  thee 
wicked  if  thou  Wert  not  wicked ;  and  is  not  thy  anger  thy  own, 
the  wrath  of  man  ? 

No — you  may  say  in  some  cases — it  is  God's  wrath  which 
I  would  exhibit.  Do  you  suppose  so  1  Be  very  sure  that  you 
are  right,  and  b.eware  of  a  seemingly  holy  wrath!  Alas!  this 
latter  so  easily  and  so  perilously  allies  itself  with  unholy  wrath, 
that  the  keenest  test  will  be  needful.  Unholy  wrath  almost 
always  says,  in  its  blindness — "I  only  desire  what  is  right;  I 
am  in  the  right,  and  I  act  right!"  Is  it  really  only  right,  O 
man  ?  Ileally  so,  before  God  ?  Wouldst  thou  with  hatred  in 
thine  heart  become  a  servant  of  the  righteousness  of  eternal 
love  ?  There  are  a  hundred  chances  against  one  that  it  is 
merely  the  lie,  the  self-deception  of  unholy  wrath,  which  is 
always  right  until  the  wrong  glaringly  appear.  Take  heed, 
and  guard  against  this  with  cautious  care !  If  it  was  another 
who  excited  your  wrath,  that  is  not  your  justification,  but  rather 
enhances  your  guilt ;  for  you  should  not  return  evil  for  evil, 
but  overcome  evil  with  good.  Your  gentleness  should  resist 
the  wrath  Avhich  is  in  tlie  Avorld,  as  a  barrier  set  against  it.  "  A 
soft  answer  turneth  away  wrath;  but  grievous  words  stir  up 
anger"  (Prov.  xv.  1).  "  If  thou  blow  the  spark,  it  shall  burn  : 
if  thou  spit  upon  it,  it  shall  be  quenched ;  and  both  these  come 
out  of  thy  mouth"  (Ecclus.  xxviii.  12).  If  you  would  really 
quench  the  mcked  fire  which  is  in  the  world,  overcome  its  evil 
and  save  it  from  its  sin,  see  to  it  that  you  do  it  prudently. 
"  But  that  is  my  endeavour;  this  is  the  reason  of  my  sacred  zeal 
before  God,  that  I  may  do  what  is  right !"  Well,  if  it  is  to  do 
ivhat  is  right ;  but  be  diligent  to  test  your  spirit,  lest  something 
else  mingles  with  your  purpose !  If  any  human  wrath  be 
mixed  up  with  it,  this  will  pervert  your  intention ;  and  how  can 
you  then  effect  what  is  right  ?  As  long  as  this  is  to  be  feared, 
cease  from  your  doubtful  zeal !  "  Fret  not  thyself  because  of 
evil-doers ;  neither  be  thou  envious  against  the  Avorkers  of  ini- 
quity" (Ps.  xxxvii.  1).  Probably  it  may  be  with  you  as  with 
David,  who  was  exceedingly  angry  with  the  man  who  had  done 
such  evil,  and  said  in  the  name  of  the  Lord,  "  As  God  liveth, 
the  man  is  a  son  of  death  " — and  the  Lord  said  to  him,  "  Thou 
art  the  man !"  (2  Sam.  xii.  5-7).     And  even  were  it  not  so, 


JAMES  I.  19,  20.  287 

thou  art  at  least  not  the  man,  uncalled  and  unbidden,  to  execute 
right. 

And  now  comes  in  the  literal,  exact  translation  of  the  text, 
in  which  the  sentence  brings  out  its  full  meaning — The  wrath 
of  man  icorketh  not  the  tighteousness  of  God.  That  in  your 
apparently  good  intention  you  would  accomplish  ;  but  you  will 
not,  you  cannot,  effect  it  by  anger.  In  truth,  there  may  be 
right  in  your  object,  though  unright  in  the  manner ;  you  may 
be  aiming  at  a  good  end,  though  in  a  spirit  not  in  accordance 
with  that  end.  Your  anger  will  never  subserve  the  cause  of 
righteousness,  either  in  yourself  or  in  others.  Evil  can  never 
be  overcome  but  by  good  ;  this  good,  however,  is  love.  Where 
zeal  is  not  actuated  by  the  pure  and  genuine  love  which  comes 
from  God,  it  increases  the  evil,  instead  of  mending  it ;  for 
wrath  kindles  wrath,  nature  answers  nature,  darkness  can  kindle 
no  light  in  darkness.  Hence,  it  is  written,  "  Fathers,  provoke 
not  your  children  to  wrath  !"  (Eph.  vi.  4)  ;  and  that  is  a  word 
of  counsel  for  all  rulers  and  teachers,  for  all  whose  business  or 
desire  it  is  to  bring  men  to  God,  and  instruct  them  in  the  way 
of  godliness.  O  that  our  blind  zealots  in  state,  and  church,  and 
school,  would  think  of  this  !  "  For  where  envying  and  strife  is, 
there  is  confusion  and  every  evil  work;"  no  good  results  can 
follow  the  contention  of  human  passion  in  the  cause  of  righteous- 
ness. "  For  the  fruit  of  righteousness  is  soAvn  in  peace  of  them 
that  make  peace"  (Jas.  iii.  16, 18).  "  He  that  hath  knowledge 
measureth  out  his  words :  and  a  man  of  understanding  is  of  a 
composed  spirit"  (Prov.  xvii.  27).  But  there  is  no  thoughtful 
understanding  in  false  zeal ;  and  how  can  it  work  the  right- 
eousness of  God  ?  Impatience  cannot  accomplish  that  which 
must  be  the  ripe  and  waited-for  fruit  of  the  seed  that  was  sown. 
No  concerns  are  furthered  by  passion  and  haste  ;  least  of  all  the 
things  of  God,  which  demand  deep  wisdom  and  long  patience. 

Therefore,  slow  to  wrath,  beloved  brethren  !  Carefully  and 
thoughtfully  testing  your  motives  and  emotions,  in  order  that 
there  may  be  no  precipitation,  either  in  manifestly  or  in  seem- 
ingly justifiable  wrath.  Let  your  first  care  be  always  to 
distinguish  between  the  true  and  the  spurious  in  your  indig- 
nant sentiments.  Commune  with  youi*  own  heart  and  be  still 
before  God,  that  ye  may  be  able  to  indulge  anger  without  sin 
(Ps.  iv.  4). 


288  SLOW  TO  WRATH. 

For  there  certainly  is  a  good  and  holy  loratJi  of  zeal.  Such 
is  the  sacred  wrath  of  God,  which  we  must  suffer  to  do  its  work, 
a  work  that  He  can  do  without  us.  That  is  the  proper  loraili  to 
which  we  are  to  give  place,  according  to  the  Apostle's  word 
(Rom.  xii.  9).  God  avenges  and  punishes ;  He  worketh  rigld- 
eousness ;  although  proud  and  revengeful  man  would  contend 
against  the  right  of  the  Supreme  to  wrath  and  judgment.  But 
God  is  and  must  ever  be  Love  even  in  wrath  ;  and  His  wisdom 
knows  the  right  way,  His  government  uses  the  right  means,  to 
oppose  His  own  efficient  righteousness  to  the  unrighteousness  of 
men.  He  will  and  He  must  finally  judge  those  who  will  not 
submit  to  correction,  with  a  wrath  which  in  this  period  of  grace 
is  yet  and  ever  to  come.  But,  from  the  time  that  sin  existed, 
the  indignation  of  His  zeal  has  never  ceased  to  bui'n  against  it. 
Behold  His  Fatherly  goodness  in  His  good  gifts  from  above, 
but  also  His  wrath  in  the  many  judgments  and  visitations  of 
the  mighty  hand  of  God.  How  often  does  His  angry  discipline 
produce  the  peaceable  fruit  of  righteousness,  so  that  His  people 
can  say — I  thank  Thee,  Lord,  that  Thou  wast  angry  with  me, 
and  that  Thine  anger  is  turned  away,  and  Thou  comfortest  me. 
Behold,  God  is  my  salvation,  and  my  strength,  and  my  psalm  ! 
(Is.  xii.  1,  2).  His  zeal  is  ever  faithful  to  destroy  the  works  of 
the  devil,  to  root  out  evil  weeds  and  plant  righteousness  and 
salvation ;  but  mark  how  slow  is  the  wrath  and  judgment  of 
God,  and  in  its  slowness  how  effectual ! 

From  Him  we  should  learn  how  rightly  to  be  angry ;  for 
hy  us,  as  His  instriunents.  He  will  work  out  His  righteousness  : 
in  the  way,  however,  of  love,  gentleness,  patience ;  yet  in  the 
form  of  wrath,  as  He  Himself  does.  The  strength  and  zeal  of 
love  is  in  wrath,  holy  wrath.  The  man  who  is  incapable  of 
being  thus  angry,  is  incapable  of  deeply  and  divinely  loving. 
If  you  would  work  as  God's  servants  for  the  righteousness  of 
His  kingdom,  you  must  know  how  to  be  zealous  and  angry  :  to 
learn  and  practise  this  is  as  necessary  to  men  of  God  as  to  learn 
and  practise  gentleness  and  patience  ;  both  consist  togethei',  and 
one  is  the  test  of  the  other.  ]\Iark  how  !Moses  at  last  went  out 
from  Pharaoh's  presence  in  the  vehemence  of  wrath  (Ex.  xi.  8) — 
how  Jonathan  arose  from  his  father's  table  in  fierce  wrath,  for  he 
was  grieved  for  David,  because  his  father  had  done  him  shame 
(1  Sam.  XX.  34) — how  king  David  was  very  wroth  when  he 


JA3IES  I.  21.  289 

heard  of  tlic  sins  of  his  son  (2  Sam.  xiii.  21) — how  everywhere 
we  find  holy  men  of  God  angry  and  full  of  zeal.  "  Elias  the 
prophet  stood  up  like  fire,  and  his  Avord  burned  as  a  lamp" 
(Ecclus.  xlviii.  1)  —  the  Baptist  rebuked  in  his  spirit,  and  de- 
nounced wrath — the  most  gentle  of  the  children  of  men,  our 
supreme  exemplar  Jesus  Christ,  looked  round  upon  the  hj'^^o- 
crites  with  anger,  being  grieved  for  the  hardness  of  their  hearts 
(Mark  iii.  5).  He  rebuked  not  again,  when  He  was  reviled ; 
but  of  Himself  He  rebuked  in  the  pure  impulse  of  love  for 
righteousness'  sake  ;  He  used  the  whip  of  small  cords  in  the 
temple,  and  zeal  for  His  Father's  house  consumed  Him.  So  be 
ye  angry^  ye  parents,  ye  teachers  and  educators,  ye  rulers ;  let 
not  youi'  love  be  soft,  but  mighty  in  its  trouble  on  account  of 
sin,  that  ye  may  with  all  earnestness  of  zeal  work  for  the 
accompHshment  of  what  is  right  to  the  glory  of  God. 


IX. 

THE  PEEPETUAL  LAYING  ASIDE  AND  EECEIVING. 

(Ch.  i.  21.) 

Wherefore,  lay  apart  all  filthiness,  aud  superfluity  of  naughtiness,  and 
receive  with  meekness  the  ingrafted  word,  which  is  able  to  save  your 
souls. 

As  we  have  dwelt  disproportionately  long  upon  the  single 
sayings  of  this  Epistle,  in  order  to  apprehend  in  some  degree 
their  profound  significance,  so  let  us  now,  on  the  other  hand, 
pause  a  while  to  take  a  general  view  of  the  whole.  AAHiat  is 
the  design  of  St  James  in  this  most  pregnant  and  comprehen- 
sive Epistle,  which  may  be  swiftly  read,  but  must  be  all  the  more 
slowly  understood,  and  which  Christians  of  our  own  time, 
learned  and  unlearned,  so  much  neglect  ?  It  is  e\adently  not 
his  purpose  to  lay  doA\Ti  the  first  foundations  of  the  Gospel,  but 
to  build  upon  a  foundation  already  laid.  Nor  is  it  to  build 
upon  that  foundation  the  superstructure  of  hwivledge  or  in- 
struction, which  was  St  Paul's  main  vocation  ;  but  to  exhort  to 
a  firm  and  secure  maintenance  of  that  foundation,  which  indeed 

T 


290        THE  PERPETUAL  LAYING  ASIDE  AND  EECEIVING. 

St  Paul  also  never  neglects.  St  James  expressly  presupposes 
the  doctrine  of  St  Paul : — if  not  as  known  among  his  first  Jew- 
ish-Christian readers,  yet  at  least  as  to  be  known  among  those 
future  readers  for  whom,  under  the  guidance  of  the  Divine 
Spirit,  his  Epistle  was  appointed  and  written.  For  in  the  sacred 
Scriptures  all  things  were  foreseen  and  prepared  for ;  and  among 
the  rest,  that  St  James  should  follow  St  Paul  in  the  order  of 
the  writings,  and  with  so  much  earnestness  demand  the  loorhs 
oi  faith,  as  we  shall  hear  in  ch.  ii.  BLis  doctrine  concerning  tlie 
law,  which  lies  at  the  foundation  of  his  counsels,  is  opposed  to  two 
aspects  of  error: — to  an  Old-Testament  legality,  on  the  one 
hand  ;  and  on  the  other,  to  a  corrupt  lawlessness,  which  might 
make  its  appeal  to  the  abolition  of  the  law.  St  James  will  have 
U.S  remember  that,  even  as  believers,  we  are  subject  to  law ; 
but  to  the  law  as  a  law  of  liberty,  of  love  (ch.  i.  25,  ii.  8).  When 
St  Paul,  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  addresses  himself  to 
joroper  exiwrtation,  it  is  given  to  him  even  then  to  speak  of 
knowledge :  in  order  to  strengthen  the  confidence  and  patience 
of  faith.  He  opens  first  the  deepest  and  highest  doctrine  con- 
cerning the  person,  office,  and  work  of  Christ ;  yea,  his  exhorta- 
tion to  faith  becomes  itself  a  doctrine,  what  faith  is  and  whence 
it  comes.  St  James,  on  the  other  hand,  speaks  of  wisdom,  of 
that  altogether  practical  wisdom  which  approves  itself  in  trial 
and  generally  in  the  life  (ch.  iii.  13).  Each  writer  in  the  New 
Testament  gives  to  us  what  "vyas  given  to  him  of  the  Spirit ;  but 
all  is  strictly  connected,  so  that  the  Church  should  embrace  all 
in  one,  in  order  to  obviate  every  one-sided  apprehension  of  holy 
doctrine. 

What  kind  of  readers  does  St  James  here  presuppose  ?  He 
speaks,  indeed,  sometimes  to  such  as  scarcely  do  more  than 
think  that  they  serve  God  (ch.  i.  2G) — attacks  severely  the 
hypocrites,  who  say  that  they  have  faith,  but  it  is  a  dead  faith 
without  works  (ch.  ii.  14,  17) — and  even  reliukes  the  adulterers, 
the  friends  of  tlie  world  and  enemies  of  God  (ch.  iv.  4).  Never- 
theless, he  writes  on  the  whole  and  especially  to  those  whom 
he  still  calls  brethren,  and  who  have  a  living  faith.  Your  faith 
— he  said  at  the  first  in  ch.  i.  3 ;  and  ascribed  to  that  faith  the 
high  dignity  of  counting  manifold  temptations  to  be  pure  joy ! 
But  he  exhorts  these  believers,  because  their  faith  is  as  yet  very 
far  from  being  matured  in  acts  unto  the  finislied  woi'k  of  par 


JAMES  I.  21.  '  291 

tience;  he  warns  them  rigorously,  because  so  much  of  efil 
still  adheres  to  them,  which  might  lead  to  their  fellowship  with 
those  blinded  fanatics  and  adulterers.  Thus  he  presupposes  a 
foundation  of  grace  already  laid ;  but  at  the  same  time  an  im- 
portant and  dangerous  deficiency  in  the  full  and  perfect  gift  of 
God.  He  speaks  as  to  regenerate — "  God  hath  begotten  us 
through  the  word  of  truth;"  but  as  knowing  that  seductive 
lust  is  still  present ;  yea,  that,  if  the  tongue  were  not  tamed,  the 
whole  course  of  the  old  corrupt  nature  would  be  restored  (ch. 
iii.  6).  He  rebukes  them,  because  the  one  fountain  sent  forth  at 
the  same  hole  sweet  water  and  bitter  (ch.  iii.  11) — summons  them 
more  resolutely  to  resist  the  devil,  to  di'aw  nigh  more  earnestly 
to  God,  that  their  hands  may  be  made  pure  and  their  hearts 
clean  (ch.  iv.  8,  9).  Therefore,  they  must  not  stand  still  in 
idleness,  which  might  lead  to  aj)ostasy ;  but  more  and  more 
fundamentally  hear  and  receive  what  God  provides  and  offers, 
more  and  more  zealously  lay  aside  the  still  indwelling  evil  of  the 
natui'al  man.  In  this  continual  laying  aside  and  receiving  con- 
sists the  life  and  growth  of  the  regenerate,  as  St  James'  saying 
here  will  teach  us :  let  us  notice  both,  and  in  the  order  in  which 
he  places  them. 

He  first  speaks  of  the  laying  aside  of  all  evil :  why  and  in 
what  way  is  this  demanded  of  us,  dear  brethren  ?  Because  the 
evil  is,  alas!  still  with  us,  as  the  words  upon  our  tongues,  and 
the  desires  in  our  hearts,  testify ;  and  as  children  of  God  it 
should  not  be  with  us  !  Because  every  unmoi*tified  lust  bring- 
eth  forth  sin  again ;  every  sin  that  had  been  put  away  grows 
again  in  more  sins,  even  to  the  ruin  of  death  !  Because,  on  the 
contrary,  the  design  of  God  is  that  as  born  of  Him  we  should 
grow  up  in  this  new  birth  of  the  creature  ;  until  we,  become 
perfect,  are  the  first-fruits  of  the  creation  of  God  !  The  goal  is 
the  being  entirely  free  from  sin,  the  fruit  of  which  is  only  death ; 
the  being  altogether  servants  of  God,  that  we  may  become  htjl}', 
unto  life  everlasting  (Rom.  vi.  21,  22).  Only  thus  are  our  souls 
saved:  thus  wholly  off  !  altogether  on!  But  how  does  this  take 
place  ?  Wlien  we,  as  St  Paul  also  exhorts  us,  lay  apart  every- 
thing which  may  be  called  anger,  wrath,  wickedness,  blasphemy, 
evil  speaking,  and  l}ing ;  when  we  imt  off  the  old  man  with  his 
deeds,  and  put  on  the  new  man  which  is  renewed  after  the 
image  of  the  Creator  (Col.  iii.  8-10).    But  this  putting  off  and 


292        THE  PERPETUAL  LAYING  ASIDE  AND  RECEIVING. 

pfltting  on  are  not  so  easily  and  at  once  effected  as  the  change 
of  a  man's  garments  ;  and  it  is  this  which  St  James  here  espe- 
cially teaches  us.  The  idle,  foolish,  and  insincere,  think  them- 
selves already  so  pure  and  righteous  that  they  scarcely  need  any 
longer  to  hear,  but  may  rather  show  their  hot  zeal  in  working 
God's  righteousness  upon  others  ; — but  their  wrath  and  zeal  is 
itself  still  human  and  evil,  from  unrighteousness  to  unrishteous- 
ness.  This  evil  continually  recurs,  or  is  likely  to  recur :  there- 
fore., says  St  James,  lay  it  aside !  On  that  account  seek  not 
to  work  righteousness  externally  in  wrath  and  contention,  but 
turn  your  zeal  vehemently  and  rightly  towards  your  own  hearts. 
Let  your  true  zeal  for  God  bend  itself  earnestly  to  this,  that 
ye  may  become  temples  of  God's  Spirit,  who  would  make  you 
full  of  good  works.  But,  this  being  your  aim,  you  cannot  be 
entirely  free  to  the  doing  of  good,  as  long  as  evil  is  present  : 
the  first  and  most  necessary  doing  is  the  'putting  away  of  the 
old  man,  in  order  that  you  may  not  be  vainly  striving  to  cover 
the  old  man  with  what  you  think  the  new. 

TJierefore  it  is  always  first.  Wherefore  lay  aside  J  Looking 
more  closely  at  St  James'  word.  What  are  we  to  lay  aside  ?  All 
filthiness,  he  says  ;  that  is,  not  merely  that  which  we  are  wont 
to  call  filthy  and  unclean  especially,  but  all  sin  in  general  as 
staining  and  defiling  the  soul.  As  in  Heb.  xii.  1,  it  is  considered 
a  burden  which  wearies  and  cramps  the  runner  in  the  race  of 
faith,  and  therefore  to  be  laid  aside ;  so  here  (and  often  in  Scrip- 
ture) it  is  at  the  same  time  an  impurity  which  adheres,  a  de- 
filement from  which  the  inner  man  must  be  washed  (St  James 
uses  in  the  original  almost  the  same  word  by  which  St  Peter 
connects  with  the  sanctification  of  baptism  the  putting  away  of 
the  filth  of  the  flesh,  1  Pet.  iii.  21), — all  those  unbecoming 
spots  which  the  glass  of  the  word  of  truth  shows  us  tolje  still 
in  our  form  (Jas.  i.  23), — since  the  Lord  will  sanctify  and  cleanse 
His  Clnu'ch  with  the  washing  of  water  by  the  word,  that  it 
might  be  without  spot,  or  wrinkle,  or  any  such  thing  (Eph.  v. 
2G,  27).  There  are  still  the  great  pollutions  of  the  world,  which 
we  long  ago  have  escaped  through  the  knowledge  of  Christ ; 
and  concerning  which  St  Peter  says,  that  he  who  is  again  en- 
tangled therein  and  overcome,  is  like  the  sow  that  retm'ns  to 
her  wallowing  in  the  mire,  the  latter  end  being  worse  with  them 
than  the  beginning!  (2  Pet.  ii.  20-22).     It  is  not  of  this  par- 


JAMES  I.  21.  293 

ticularly  tliat  St  James  here  speaks,  but  of  those  manifold  Im- 
pm'ities  and  defects  of  Christians,  down  to  the  shghtest,  which 
stain  and  disfigure  their  character,  adhering  to  that  new  nature 
which  is  altogether  averse  to  them.  O  how  inexcusably  facile 
are  we  too  often  in  these  things ;  thinking  in  our  hearts,  "  Every 
man  has  his  peculiarities,  failings,  and  infirmities,  for  we  are  not 
at  once  made  perfect," — as  if  we  must  therefore  tolerate  and  con- 
sciously retain  these  defects  !  Brethren,  thus  should  it  not  be  ! 
Examine  carefully  your  daily  household  life,  your  intercourse  with 
the  world,  and  the  ordinary  strain  of  your  thinking,  speaking, 
and  conduct ;  and  see  if  there  be  not  much  in  them  concerning 
which  you  must  confess,  "  This  is  not  as  it  ought  to  be ;  this  is 
not  right  in  a  child  of  God,  and  not  becoming  in  a  Christian !" 
But  think  not  such  things  as  these  insignificant ;  for  every  such 
defilement,  if  it  be  not  wiped  away,  eats  as  doth  a  cancer ;  to 
retain  many  little  sins  is  already  of  itself  a  very  great  sin.  Par- 
ticularly that  which  goeth  out  •  of  the  mouth  dejileth  the  man 
(Matt.  XV.  11).  Are  your  words  the  pure  truth  of  God,  full  of 
pure  love  to  your  neighbour,  useful  for  his  edification ;  salt,  and 
yet  full  of  peace?  And  if  you  learn  carefully  to  mark  the 
impropriety  of  your  words,  you  will  learn  to  detect  it  also  in 
many  of  your  actions.  All  this  you  must  put  away,  as  St  James 
speaks  as  it  were  from  without;  but  if  you  are  thoroughly 
earnest  in  this  work  of  putting  away,  you  will  further  mark 
whence  this  filthiness  comes,  and  where  it  is  essentially  to  be 
suppressed.  Not,  as  a  child  once  answered  my  question,  "  What 
must  a  man  do  to  reform  himself  ?  "  according  to  the  superficial 
teaching  which  he  had  received,  "  He  must  put  away  all  his 
faults,  and  put  on  the  opposite  virtues !"  It  is  not  in  this  ready 
way  that  faults  are  laid  aside  and  virtues  assumed.  Impurity 
does  not  cling  to  us  so  externally  that  we  may  wash  it  away 
as  with  a  sponge.  That  which  proceedeth  out  of  the  mouth, 
and  similarly  what  the  eyes  and  ears,  the  hands  and  feet,  do, — 
all  comes  from  the  heart.  Cleanse  your  hands,  and  purify  your 
hearts  (Jas.  iv.  8).  Thus  alone  we  cleanse  ourselves  from  all  filthi- 
ness of  the  flesh  and  spirit,  perfecting  holiness  (2  Cor.  ii.  1). 

Therefore  St  James  adds — Lay  aside  all  filthiness  and  all 
naughtiness.  Not  that  he  means  in  this  passage,  as  has  been 
too  hastily  said,  two  things — the  lesser  spot,  and  the  worse 
wickedness ;  but  the  defilement  is  at  the  same  time  wickedness 


294        THE  PERPETUAL  LAYING  ASIDE  AJS'D  EECEIVING. 

itself.  If  I  would  make  clean  my  appearance  externally,  I  must 
in  so  doing  put  away  sin ;  else  the  word  of  the  Master  will  apply 
to  me  as  His  disciple — Thou  blind  Pharisee,  cleanse  first  that 
which  is  within,  in  order  that  the  outside  may  be  also  clean  ! 
(Matt,  xxiii.  26).  Else  it  might  prove  that  I  was  a  mere  de- 
votee, with  Christ's  garment  drawn  over  the  old  Adam  ;  while 
the  old  Adam  everywhere  peeping  out  must  put  me  to  confu- 
sion. St  James,  however,  uses  yet  another  word,  which  Luther 
would  fain  have  omitted ;  but  it  is  quite  intelligible,  and  of  great 
importance.  The  revised  German  Bible  uses  the  apt  expres- 
sion, Auswuchs;  that  is,  the  yet  remaining,  and  still  forthcoming, 
aftergrowth  of  the  evil  root  of  sin.  St  James  means  by  this 
profound  and  pregnant  expression  that  which  is  still  left  of  this 
root,  and  which  may  swiftly  and  unhappily  come  to  light  before 
we  properly  observe  it.  This  evil  residue  springs  up  not  merely 
as  open  wickedness,  sin,  unrighteousness,  and  lie  (guile,  hypo- 
crisies, envies,  evil  speakings,  etc.,  1  Pet.  ii.  1),  but  it  mixes  itself 
as  a  leaven  with  the  good,  and  pushes  it  out  of  its  proper  mea- 
sm'es.  Therefore  St  James  uses  a  word  which  at  the  same  time 
indicates  superfluity,  an  unholily  thriving  too  much;  for,  this 
aftergrowth  of  the  evil  heart  often  exhibits  itself  as  a  superfluity 
of  the  seemingly  good ;  while  it  is  in  itself  not  good,  but  a  growth 
of  iniquity.  Wouldst  thou  be  too  wise  with  thy  so-called  Chris- 
tian knowledge  ?  Look  to  it,  that  there  be  not  an  undergrowth 
of  carnal  folly!  Wouldst  thou  be  very  gracious  and  gentle 
v/ith  all  the  world,  or  very  rigorous  and  severe  against  all  mi- 
righteousness,  or  very  calm  and  self-contained  in  thy  quiet  in- 
ternal enjoyment  of  grace — take  care  of  the  stain  and  the  un- 
truth which  adheres  to  every  exaggeration  of  every  individual 
excellence.  But  this  ill  growth  naturally  hinders  the  pure  growth 
of  the  good ;  as,  for  example  (adhering  to  the  present  subject 
of  discom-se),  the  too  much  speaking  is  a  hindrance  to  hearing. 
]\Iark  now  how  the  present  text  touches  us  all  with  its  never- 
ceasing  exhoi'tation  ■ —  Therefore  lay  ajyart !  Take  resolutely  by 
the  roots  what  of  evil  superfluously  grows  • 

If  we  understand  this  and  act  accordingly,  rather  if  we 
thoroughly  and  earnestly  will  to  do  so,  then  comes  in  the 
inseparable  receiving.  But  what  is  it  we  are. to  receive?  St 
James  has  before  indicated  the  wickedness  to  be  put  away,  in 
its  variety  and  abundance — All,  or  every  kind  of,  filthiness ; 


JAMES  I.  21.  295 

every  such  outgrowth,  of  whatever  sort  it  may  be.  He  does  not, 
however,  set  over  against  this  all  kinds  of  excellence,  but  one 
tiling.  Nor  does  he  here,  with  St  Paul,  speak  at  once  of  put- 
ting on  the  new  man,  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ ;  but  he  goes  still 
deeper  with  his  word,  and  mentions  that  through  which  alone 
Christ  can  be  put  on,  the  true  receiving  of  the  gift  of  God — 
Receive  the  icord!  That  is  to  say,  the  word  of  God,  the  vwrd 
of  truth,  the  best  gift  from  above,  the  seed  of  our  regenera- 
tion. Thus  it  is  this  word  which  must  effect  all;  this  word 
alone,  and  nothing  else,  must  create  all  that  is  new  and  good 
within  us.  "  The  same  word  which  created  heaven  and  earth, 
accomplishes  all;  not  we  poor  and  helpless  sinners" — said 
Luther,  in  his  great  conflict  once ;  and  so  is  it  ever — The  word 
does  all  without,  and  within  also,  through  our  own  faculties.  In 
whatever  form  God  gives  to  our  hearing  a  word  of  truth,  it  is  a 
good  gift  of  light  and  power  from  above  ;  the  good  seed  from 
which  all  good  in  us  grows.  That  is  the  nourishment  of  the 
inner  man,  the  true  bread  whereof  he  lives ;  that  is  the  sincere 
milk  by  which  the  new-born  babes  grow  unto  salvation  (1  Pet. 
ii.  2)  ;  that  is  the  true  washing  of  water  unto  sanctification  and 
cleansing.  It  is  for  vis  to  receive  the  word,  until  we  ourselves 
become  as  it  were  a  mere  word  of  God  in  the  new  nature; 
until,  according  to  the  promise  of  the  new  covenant  (Jer.  xxxi. 
33),  all  that  in  that  word  has  been  spoken  and  written  is  put 
into  our  hearts  and  written  in  our  minds.  Before,  St  James' 
exhortation  was — Count  nothing  slight  which  is  in  you  an  im- 
pulse thing,  and  a  mere  undergrowth  or  superfluity  of  evil ! 
Now  he  says,  similarly — Neglect,  pretermit,  leave  not  unac- 
cepted any  little  seed-corn  of  truth  from  above  unto  sanctifica- 
tion ;  for  it  is  the  word  in  its  entireness,  the  one  word,  of  which 
ye  are  born,  and  in  which  ye  grow  and  live.  In  order  first  to 
the  laying  aside  (as  he  will  presently  go  on  to  teach  us),  we 
need  the  word,  which  as  a  glass  shows  us  what  manner  of  men 
we  are,  and  what  there  may  be  of  stain  or  defect  in  us ;  but 
much  more  must  we  receive  all  good  from  the  same  word  ! 

But  hoio  does  this  proceed  ;  what  is  the  receiving  of  the 
word  ?  Merely  suffering  it  to  be  spoken  to  us  ?  Yes,  if  it  be 
rightly  understood  what  that  means — spoken  to  its  !  if  you 
understand  St  James'  expression,  implanted  or  ingrafted,  in  all 
its  force.     It  will  implant  itself  with  all  its  energy,  let  it  take 


296        THE  PERPETU^VL,  LAYING  ASIDE  AND  RECEIVIN'^.. 

root  and  grow  in  thee  ;  hear  it  for  no  other  pui'pose  than  that, 
so  that  thy  receiving  shall  be  an  internal  receiving  of  healing 
medicine  and  food.  The  word  of  truth  does  not  always  speak 
gently  and  soothingly  to  us,  not  always  in  the  consolations 
which  God  gives  to  His  new-born  children ;  there  is  severe 
instruction  and  exhortation,  with  which  He  disciplines  and 
educates  us  into  men  of  God.  The  word  of  discipline  in 
righteousness  has  not  a  sweet  taste  ;  but  it  is  wholesome  medi- 
cine for  removing  sin.  Wlien  you  hearken  to  it,  brethren — 
those  in  whom  it  is,  according  to  St  James,  an  implanted  word 
— do  you  not  hearken  at  the  same  time  to  yourselves,  your 
better  selves,  your  own  new  man  ?  Does  not  the  Sjairit  within 
you  utter  His  Amen  to  every  truth  which  from  without  or  from 
above  is  brought  to  your  remembrance  and  thought  1  O  be 
reminded,  instructed,  allured,  warned,  urged,  and  invigorated 
by  that  internal  word,  icith  meekness !  Contradict  it  not ; 
but  lay  aside  and  root  out  all  opposition  of  the  flesh  to  the 
Spirit.  Withstand  it  not,  but  submit  in  all  simplicity  of  obe- 
dience. Avoid  with  all  your  might  the  wicked  wrath  of  the  old 
man,  which  often  masks  itself  with  cunning,  and  conceals  the 
solemn  truth  that  a  useful  and  holy  word  is  being  repelled  from 
the  heart.  If  you  observe  it  not  yoiu'selves,  hear  others  who 
tell  you  of  it.  But  how  many  are  exasperated  against  the 
injustice  of  others,  who  have  done  no  more  than  speak  against 
their  own  unrighteousness ;  their  anger  bursts  out,  instead  of 
meekly  hearing,  retaining,  and  pondering,  the  reproof  in  their 
hearts  !  But  the  true  meekness  of  hearing  and  receivino;  is  an 
internal  willingness  and  resignation  of  such  as  are  sincerely  and 
humbly  bent  upon  being  amended ;  therefore,  they  are  still  and 
patient  under  the  discipline  of  the  wholesome  word.  They  do 
not  restively  resist  that  discipline,  as  if  an  injury  was  inflicted 
upon  them  ;  for,  to  what  end  serves  the  meek  reception  of  the 
word^  "Which  is  able  to  save  your  souls" — the  text  finally 
adds  in  encouraging  exhortation.  Only  the  word  can  make 
our  souls  ready  and  fit  for  salvation ;  only  the  word  of  grace, 
through  which,  by  the  power  of  God,  we  are  built  up,  until  the 
full  inheritance  can  be  given  to  us  with  all  the  saints  (Acts 
XX.  32).  But  only  when  we  receive  it  with  meekness,  and  are 
not  offended  by  it,  suffering  it  to  build  us  up  by  sinking  more 
and  more  deeply  into  our  nature.     Whoever  casts  behind  him 


JAMES  I.  22-25.  297 

a  good  word  of  God,  or  merely  neglects  it,  rejects  a  grace, 
knows  not  an  hour  of  visitation,  and  slights  a  blessing  which 
would  have  been  for  his  peace.  But  whosoever  is  in  earnest 
to  hear  all  that  it  imports  him  to  hear,  will  receive  in  every 
remembrancer  the  voice  which  says — "I  remind  you  of  the 
Gospel  which  ye  have  heard,  and  in  which  ye  stand,  by  which 
also  ye  are  saved,  if  ye  hold  it  fast"  (1  Cor.  xv.  1,  2). 


X. 


THE  SELF-DECEPTION  OP  THE  HEAREES  ;   THE  BLESSEDNESS  OF 

THE  DOERS. 

(Ch.  i.  22-25.) 

But  be  ye  doers  of  the  word,  and  not  hearers  only,  deceiving  your  own 
selves.  For  if  any  be  a  bearer  of  the  word,  and  not  a  doer,  he  is  like 
unto  a  man  beholding  his  natural  face  in  a  glass :  for  he  beholdeth  him- 
self, and  goeth  his  way,  and  straightway  f orgetteth  what  manner  of  man 
he  was.  But  whoso  looketh  into  the  perfect  law  of  Uberty,  and  con- 
tiuueth  therein,  he  being  not  a  forgetful  hearer,  but  a  doer  of  the  work, 
this  man  shall  be  blessed  in  his  doing. 

In  the  constant  laying  aside  of  all  filthiness,  and  receiving  of 
the  piu'ifying  word,  consists,  as  w^e  have  seen,  true  Christianity. 
As  long  as  there  is  any  sin  left,  the  putting  away  and  renouncing 
must  diligently  proceed  :  else  there  results  a  wide  and  influential 
self-deception.  As  long  as  we  are  not  yet  perfect,  without 
defect  or  stain;  we  must  look  forwards,  with  an  ever  more 
effectual  ingi'afting  of  the  word  of  grace  :  else  we  stand  idly  in 
false  glorying,  and  in  deceitful  appearance.  But  we  must  rightly 
understand  it,  that  the  laying  aside  and  the  receiving,  concur- 
rently and  together,  do  not  mean  that  we  must  first  pluck  up  all 
the  thorns,  in  order  that  the  harvest  of  the  new  and  good  seed 
may  spring  up  !  The  grace  itself  which  we  receive  disciplines  ; 
the  acceptance  of  the  word  of  truth  gives  the  impulse  and  power 
for  the  putting  away  of  all  that  is  evil  and  false.  We  receive 
the  word,  when  we  not  merely  hear  it,  as  the  word  too  frequently 
runs  ;  though  the  beginning  of  all  must  necessarily  be  the  hear- 
ing.    Concerning  this  first  hearing,  in  which  a  man  submits  to 


298  SELF-DECEIVING  HEAEEES. 

be  spoken  to  instead  of  being  swift  to  speak  himself,  St  James 
treated  in  ver.  19  ;  and  then  in  ver.  21  he  added,  in  connec- 
tion with  the  receiving  of  the  word,  obedience,  in  which  man 
suffers  the  word  to  enter  into  himself.  He  now  pauses  at  this 
important  point — of  so  much  moment  to  the  beginning,  conti- 
nuance, and  perfection  of  the  new  life — and  shows  fully  how 
men,  deceiving  themselves,  separate  what  is  joined  together  by 
God,  the  receiving  and  the  obeying,  the  hearing  and  the  doing. 
Against  this  he  solemnly  warns  all ;  and  exhorts  us  to  a  right, 
perfect,  fruitful,  sanctifying,  soul-saving  hearing.  He  shows, 
further,  how  the  implanted  word  saves  the  soul ;  speaks  of  the 
looking  into  the  deep  ground  of  the  word,  according  to  which  it 
is  to  us  a  perfect  law  of  liberty,  as  being  the  true  understanding 
of  it ;  and  of  the  continuing  therein,  as  the  true  doing  of  a  free 
obedience. 

He  presupposes  in  all  this  that  he  is  speaking  not  to  despisers 
of  the  word,  but  to  hearers  of  it.  Otherwise  the  exhortation 
must  have  run^ — Become,  he,  remaiji  hearers  of  the  saving  truth  ! 
When  the  Lord  sends  His  w^ord  by  His  servants,  the  common 
people  still  hear  it  gladly  (Mark  xii.  37).  But,  even  if  all  the 
people  had  heard,  of  what  avail  was  that  ?  Such  hearing  is  not 
enough.  Again,  "  to  he  a  hearer^''  is  in  itself  more  than  that 
merely  willing  attention  to  what  is  said ;  it  is  a  good  thing, 
though  only  because  the  zeal  of  hearing  may  and  Avill  lead  to 
obedience.  But  all  the  worse  is  it,  consequently,  when  so  many 
remain  mere  hearers,  without  becoming  doers  :  they  deceive 
themselves  !  But  those  who  rightly  hear  in  order  to  do,  save 
themselves,  and  are  already  blessed  in  their  deed  !  What  then 
is  the  process  in  hoth  these  cases,  in  the  self-deception  of  the  mere 
hearers,  and  in  the  hlessedness  of  those  who  are  doers  ?  Let  us 
hear  St  James  in  reply,  with  open  ears  and  profiting  hearts  ! 

We  deceive  ourselves  when  we  neglect  and  leave  undone  the 
heginning  of  all  doing,  ichich  the  loord  constantly  demands  of  every 
one.  And  what  is  that  beginning?  It  is  not  the  premature 
inquiry — What  good  thing  shall  I  do  ?  that  is  in  question  here ; 
but  the  first  good  thiiig  at  the  outset  is — to  lay  aside  all  wicked- 
ness !  But  how  can  we  do  this,  without  knowing  our  wickedness  ? 
This  fundamental  knowledge,  urging  to  the  abandonment  of 
evil,  comes  never  from  ourselves ;  there  is  always  a  mirror  held 
before  us  in  the  word  of  trutli,  which  will  prevent  all  self-deccp- 


JAMES  I.  22-25.  299 

tion.  Thei'e  I  must  contemplate  and  beliold  loliat  manner  of 
man  I  am,  before  tlie  Searcher  and  the  Judge  of  liearts  :  that  is, 
not  my  bodily  face  (as  Luther  translates,  as  if  the  external 
figure  were  held  fast),  but,  as  St  James  says,  my  natural  face, 
the  face  or  aspect,  the  form  of  my  hirtli,  my  inborn  character. 
That  is  Adam's  image,  or  the  inherited  corruption  implanted  in 
my  sinful  birth,  as  the  form  or  countenance  of  my  heart,  of  my 
inner  man  before  God.  St  James  speaks  of  hearing,  because 
he  has  more  direct  reference  to  the  preached  word ;  but  he  is 
not  wanting  elsewhere  in  reference  to  Scripture  (ch.  ii.  8,  23, 
iv.  5),  the  sayings  of  which  are  to  be  heard,  the  law  of  which  is 
to  be  obeyed,  the  promises  of  which  are  to  be  fulfilled ;  and 
much  of  that  Epistle  which  he  here  adds  to  the  Scripture  is 
taken  from  the  previous  writings  of  Scriptm'e.  Now  all  that 
preaching  can  do  is  to  bring  home  to  us  the  word  which  is 
written  ;  to  take  this  clear  mirror  and  hold  it  up  to  us.  There 
behold  I  in  the  law  of  my  God  what  I  should  be  before  Him 
in  perfect  love,  and  how  altogether  different  I  am  by  nature  I 
There  behold  I  in  the  Gospel  the  great  goal  set  before  me  :  how 
I  must  believe  unto  righteousness  in  the  grace,  communication, 
and  fellowship  of  God  who  calleth  me,  how  His  Spirit  dwelling 
in  me  testifies  and  works  mightily  agaiiist  all  hatred,  urging 
me  to  love.  There  I  see  what  I  yet  lack  of  the  mind  of  Christ ; 
or,  better,  what  there  is  yet  superfluous  in  me  of  my  own  mind 
and  nature.  He  who  does  not  know  that  through  the  word 
which  he  hears,  is  not  properly  speaking  a  hearer  ;  he  does  not 
look  into  the  glass  set  before  him,  but  turns  it  (as,  alas !  many  are 
veiy  skilful  in  doing)  ever  to  his  neighbour  and  other  men.  As 
soon  as  God's  word  is  actually  heard,  it  gives  to  every  man  some 
measure  .of  self-knowledge.  True  that  thy  name,  O  hearer, 
stands  not  in  the  Scriptui-e  ;  the  picture  of  thy  life  is  not  drawn 
there ;  and  the  preaching,  which  brings  home  the  Scripture, 
can  be  only  a  general  preaching  for  all,  and  not  expressly  and 
particularly  for  thee.  But  still  it  holds  good,  that  he  who 
rightly  hears  heholdeth  himself,  and  that  not  in  a  distorted  image 
of  a  dark  glass,  but  face  to  face  (1  Cor.  xiii.  12).  Look  sin- 
cerely into  the  clear  mirror  of  the  truth,  and  thine  own  face 
will  look  at  thee  !  The  AAord  will  tell  thee  all  that  thou  hast 
done,  will  reveal  to  thee  thy  heart's  ground,  and  judge  all  thy 
life.     The  looking  of  thy  beholding  eye  is  indeed  the  necessary 


300  SELF-DECEIVING  HEARERS. 

condition  ;  but  then  God's  word  is  also  an  incomparable  glass 
for  the  full  self-knowledge  of  every  man.  It  approves  itself 
thereby  the  marvellous  word  of  the  Spirit,  the  word  of  God 
which  judgeth  the  thoughts  and  intents  of  the  heart. 

Now  hast  thou  beheld  thyself — to  what  end  ?  Only  to  know 
what  thyform  and  character  is,  and  nothing  more?  Ono;  in  order 
that  thou  mayest  be  ivashed  from  the  defilement  which  the  faith- 
ful mirror  not  in  vain  will  exhibit !  How  then  may  this  be  over- 
looked and  neglected?  If  any  man  is  a  hearer  only  of  the  word  and 
not  a  doer ;  if  he  forgets  and  leaves  undone  that  which  is  first  to 
be  done,  and  for  the  sake  of  which  he  has  heard  the  word, — he  is 
like  a  man  who  beholds  his  natural  face  in  a  glass,  merely  be- 
holds without  any  further  resnlt ;  for  he  has  beheld  himself,  and 
then  goes  away  and  forgets  at  once  again  what  manner  of  man 
he  was.  This  is  a  melancholy  history,  which  is  acted  out  every 
Sunday  by  multitudes  of  church-goers,  and  ever}'"  day  by  many 
who  receive  calls  and  warnings.  The  poor  man  has  really  heard 
the  good  and  true  word ;  he  has  really  seen  in  the  glass  that  he 
is  a  sinner  by  nature ;  he  has  been  constrained  to  behold  the 
specific  characteristics  of  his  sin  and  defilement.  If  he  were  to 
carry  all  this  away  with  him,  how  would  its  good  results  appear  ? 
He  would  feel  urged  to  the  first  resolute  doing,  and  say — "  Thus 
am  I  in  the  sight  of  God ;  but  thus  I  must  not  and  will  not 
remain  ;  I  must  be  changed;" — then  would  follow  the  resolu- 
tion, "  I  will  wash  and  be  clean  in  the  grace  of  the  same  God ! " 
But  what  occurs  instead  of  this  ?  He  goes  away  and  forgets 
the  same  hour  what  manner  of  person  he  was !  That  is  the 
melancholy  history,  iAa^  is  the  essential  and  miserable  /org eti hi (/! 
There  may  be  withal  a  careful  retention  of  what  was  'preached ; 
but  to  retain  this  avails  but  little.  Thou  must  retain  that  one 
thing  in  the  preaching,  and  not  forget  what  manner  of  person 
thou  wast: — thou  wast  when  the  glass  showed  thee  thy  time 
form ;  as  thy  conscience  admitted,  being  unable  to  contradict ; 
and  as  consequently  thou  art  after  going  away,  and  will  re- 
main if  a  great  change  does  not  come.  Many  hearers  of  ser- 
mons complain  of  the  preacher,  that  they  can  retain  so  little  of 
his  sermon ;  but,  when  they  make  this  excuse,  they  mostly  rather 
condemn  themselves  as  having  not  for  themselves  heard  with  the 
right  attention.  There  is  a  kind  of  preaching  which  paints 
beautiful  pictures  instead  of  holding  up  the  faithful  mirror; 


JAJVIES  I.  22-25.  301 

but  if  thou  hast  heard  sound  preaching,  and  beheld  the  true 
miiTor,  and  looked  so  as  that  the  word  should  seize  thyself,  and 
yet  it  remains  not  in  thee — then  the  fault  is  only  thine  own, 
thou  goest  away  and  f orgettest !     We  must  leave  the  church, 
indeed ;  but  not  on  that  account  must  we  leave  the  presence  of 
God,  and  rush  into  the  distractions  of  life,  immediately  after 
receiving  the  benediction,  and  being  commended  to  the  keeping 
of  the  li*dit  of  His  countenance.     In  order  to  fruitful  hearing 
there  must  be  first  the  opening  of  the  heart,  and  afterwards  the 
keeping  there  the  word  we  hear.      Many  people  talk  foolishly  of 
their  sensations  and  profit  while  they  hear;   but  there  is  no 
abiding  effect  of  their  feelings.     To  add  another  figure  to  that 
of  the  Apostle  :  the  iron  must  be  fashioned  while  it  is  hot,  until 
it  takes  the  right  form  !     But  to  make  it  hot  and  leave  it  so,  or 
at  once  to  plunge  it  into  water,  tends  only  to  harden  it  more 
and  more  in  its  present  form.     The  poor  foolish  man  whom 
,St  James  means,  heard  the  word  and  looked  into  the  glass  as  if 
passing  by ;  this  brings  him  no  amendment,  but  tends  only  to 
create  the  habit  of  self-deception  ;  and  the  fleeting  unimproved 
view  of  self  only  hardens  the  soul.     This  is  in  truth  deception ; 
and  blameworthy,  wilfid  self-deception.     Such  hearers  deceive 
themselves  first  with  a  lorong  conclusion  (as  the  word  here  is 
in  the  original)  :  they  infer — I  have  heard,  and  am  I  not  there- 
fore pious  ?  althougli  the  very  word  which  they  have  heard  ut- 
tered plainly — Thou  art  not  pious,  but  must  become  so  !     And 
whence  is  this  perversion  in  intelligent  men  ?     Mark  what  the 
text  says  on  this  most  important  point.    Such  a  forgetful  hearer 
is  therefore  so  forgetful,  and  at  the  same  time  so  unreasonable, 
because  he  has  not  yet  rightly  and  fully  heai'd;  because  he  has  not 
yet  looked  penetratingly  enough  into  the  glass.    He  who  hears  the 
preaching  merely  as  the  preaching  of  repentance  for  the  rebuke 
of  his  sin,  or  in  addition  merely  as  a  presentation  of  duty,  as  a 
demand  of  God  upon  his  own  doing  and  resoui'ces,  cannot  long 
endure  it ;  he  casts  away  the  hard  word  at  once,  because  it  has 
become  a  biu'den  too  heavy,  not  only  for  his  head,  but  especially 
for  his  heart.     Therefore  there  are  so  many  forgetful  hearers, 
who  reject  the  word  because  it  does  nothing  more  than  trouble 
them.    Therefore,  of  all  the  people  who  flocked  to  the  preaching 
of  a  John  the  Baptist,  none  were  brought  in  without  the  grace 
of   Christ  which   followed;   therefore  notliing  comes   of  the 


302  THE  BLESSED  DOEE. 

preaching  of  the  Gospel  in  our  days  to  those  who  understand 
and  receive  the  Gospel  not  as  a  Gospel.  Hear  still,  but  better 
hear !     Look  still  into  the  glass,  but  deeper  into  it  / 

We  are  and  become  blessed  in  our  deed,  if  the  end  of  all  our 
doing,  to  which  the  word  points  us,  is  already  apprehended  hy  us  as 
the  oral  ground  of  our  beginning.  What  is  that  end  ?  Nothing 
but  the  putting  on  of  the  new  man  !  But  how  does  that  take 
place  I  No  otherwise  thrai  by  the  receiving  of  the  self-implant- 
ing vjord.  It  is  the  same  word  which  shows  thee  thy  sin,  and 
offers  thee  purification  from  thy  sin  ;  the  y^ordoi  truth  is  also  a 
word  of  grace.  O  that  we  all  understood  this,  and  would  re- 
ceive it  unto  its  full  and  absolute  working  !  The  word  does  not 
only  tell  us  what  we  are,  or  rather  what  we  are  not  but  should 
be ;  it  tells  us  also  how  we  may  become  what  we  shovJd  be, 
through  the  gift  and  grace  of  Him  who  speaketh  with  us.  "  If 
thou  knewest  the  gift  of  God !  Go  call  thy  sins,  and  come  back 
with  them  to  Me  !  I  am  He  whom  thou  hast  waited  for ;  Christ,, 
the  Saviour  of  tlie  world!"  (John  iv.)  Such  preaching  works 
faith,  and  creates  a  new  thing ;  so  that  the  overcome,  comforted, 
and  not  merely  terrified  hearers,  joyfully  confess  all  that  they 
have  done,  to  do  it  no  more,  and  call  upon  Christ  in  this  new 
work  of  penitence.  The  Gospel  brings  to  man  the  power  for 
the  putting  away  of  sin,  while  it  preaches  and  presents  to  us 
Christ.  It  gives  to  us  confidence  through  Christ  towards  God  ; 
it  brings  to  those  who  are  utterly  vmable  of  themselves  ability  to 
turn  from  sin ;  it  is  no  killhig  letter,  but  a  lifegiving  Spirit ;  it 
preaches  righteousness  in  the  glory  of  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ 
(2  Cor.  iii.  4-6,  9).  Thus  through  the  Gospel  the  fulfilment  of 
the  law  is  established  in  us ;  for  both  are  assuredly  one  in  the 
deepest  ground  of  the  truth  of  God,  which  both  saves  and -sanc- 
tifies. This  St  James  calls  here  the  law  of  liberty,  by  a  contra- 
diction which  is  blessedly  harmonised.  The  Gospel  is  and  must 
ever  be  a  law ;  but  it  proceeds  from  free  grace,  and  unto  free 
obedience  ;  without  any  constraint  or  fear,  which  never  wrought 
a  true  and  heartfelt  fulfilment  of  any  law.  Christ  has  finished 
all  for  us ;  Christ  finishes  all  in  us.  Pie  who  cannot  as  yet 
apprehend  these  two  together  in  the  deep  ground  of  faith, 
vibrates  hither  and  thither  between  law  and  grace,  like  many 
so-called  Christians  of  the  present  day  :  now  he  comforts  him- 
self with  the  atonement ;  now  he  feels  the  keen  impulse  which 


JA3IES  I.  22-25.  '  303 

urges  him  to  holiness,  but  not  as  the  loviuo:  constraint  of  the 
Spirit  of  grace,  for  he  receives  even  the  evangelical  exhortation 
in  a  legal  spirit.  No  complete  obedience  issues  from  this  ;  no 
perfect  doing  of  the  entire  man  in  the  freedom  derived  from  a 
free  grace.  But  he  Avho  fvilly  hears  the  word  looks  through  into 
the  true  principle  of  the  glass ;  he  receives  and  holds  fast  the 
whole  truth,  wliich  makes  free  and  sanctifies.  Then  there  will 
be  none  of  that  false  dealing  with  works  which  St  Paul  con- 
demns, no  anxious  labour  in  one's  own  strength  to  work  for  one's 
own  merit ;  but  there  will  also  be  no  false  dealing  with  faithj 
such  as  both  St  Paul  and  St  James  combine  to  condemn. 
Then  a  man  sees  both  at  once  in  the  glass  :  first  on  the  surface 
his  old  man,  which  must  be  altogether  put  away  to  its  last  prin- 
ciple ;  but  then  he  also  sees  deeper  his  new  man,  as  it  already 
lives  before  God  in  Christ,  who  is  his  righteousness.  Then  he 
is  already  washed  and  made  clean  through  the  word  which  is 
spoken  to  him,  and  which  continues  to  say.  Abide  in  Me  and  I 
in  you!  (John  xv.  3,  4).  For  the  Lord  is  the  Spirit.  But 
where  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is,  there  is  liberty.  Tluis  is  re- 
jected in  us  all — wliile  the  wondrous  mirror  of  grace  glorifies 
us,  with  unveiled  face  in  all  sincerity  of  self-knowledge  and 
truth,  and  with  faith  equally  sincere — the  glory  of  the  Lord ; 
thus  ice  are  changed  into  the  same  image  which  we  belie\'ingly 
behold,  from  gloiy  to  glory  (2  Cor.  iii.  17,  18).  Thus  the  true 
evangelical  preaching  must  be  preached :  that  is  taken  for 
granted ;  but  hoio  do  the  true  hearers  apprehend  this  goal  ah'eady 
for  the  beffinnincT  ? 

It  is  apprehended  in  faith,  and  in  this  all  is  said ;  it  is  re- 
tained in  the  heart ;  that  which  is  now  understood  is  not  forgot- 
ten !  He  who  has  not  beheld  merely  his  own  face,  but  looked 
through  to  the  face  of  Christ ;  who  has  received  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount  from  the  mount  of  Beatitudes,  at  His  lips  who  came  to 
fulfil  the  law  ;  who  has  thus  accepted  the  perfect  law  of  liberty  ; 
— is  anew  invested  with  righteousness,  for  he  has  learned  to 
say,  "  Lord,  if  Thou  wilt,  Thou  canst  make  me  clean ;"  and  fur- 
ther, "  Lord,  Thou  wilt,  and  I  also  will  from  the  ground  of  my 
heart !"  Him  has  the  loord  now  first  rightly  and  perfectly 
seized;  he  can  apprehend  and  follow  on  to  apprehend,  because 
'he  is  apprehended  (Phil.  iii.  12).  Now,  properly  speaking,  there 
is  no  other  and  new  doing,  but  the  continuing  therein^  in  this 


304  THE  LAW  OF  LIBERTY. 

view,  in  this  disposition  and  state  of  soul.  "  If  ye  continue  in  My 
word,  ye  are  My  disciples  indeed  ;  and  ye  shall  know  the  truth, 
and  the  truth  shall  make  you  free!"  (John  viii.  31,  32).  This 
remaining  with  Jesus,  this  continuing  in  grace  received,  is  the 
whole  matter,  the  whole  of  our  doing.  Hast  thou  seen  thy  sin  ? 
See  also  that  He  who  showed  it  has  already  taken  it  away  and 
will  abolish  it.  See,  Christ  is  thine ;  let  Him  henceforth  no 
more  go  out  of  thine  heart,  never  again  go  away  from  the  sight 
of  His  face.  Thus  Christ  is  more  formed  in  us,  and  the  old 
form  passes  away ;  the  buds  become  blossom,  the  blossom  fruit, 
under  the  Sun  of  rio-hteousness.  The  Christian  no  lono;er 
harasses  himself  with  individual  works  in  all  kinds  of  legal  en- 
deavour ;  love  accomplishes  all.  This  is  the  one  internal  acting 
of  the  faith  which  worketh  by  love,  as  St  James  profoundly 
says ;  and  such  doers  are  blessed.  But  to  understand  this 
thoroughly  requires  a  more  careful  consideration  of  the  words 
which  now  follow. 


XI. 


THE  LAW  OF  LIBERTY  :   LOOKTNG  INTO  AND  CONTINUING  IN 
IT  :    THE  BLESSED  IN  THEIR  DEED. 

(Ch.  i.  25.) 

But  whoso  looketh  into  the  perfect  law  of  liberty,  and  continueth  therein, 
he  being  not  a  forgetful  hearer,  but  a  doer  of  the  work,  this  man  shall  be 
blessed  in  his  deed. 

We  have  now  reached  a  saying  which  may  be  called  the 
centre  and  heart  of  St  James'  Epistle :  he  who  understands 
this  saying,  he  who  apprehends  and  explains  by  its  light  all  that 
precedes  and  follows,  may  be  said  to  look  into  the  profound 
depth  of  the  entire  Epistle.  Alas  !  this  precious  Epistle  has 
been  in  all  ages  too  much  misunderstood ;  and  on  that  account 
too  few  have  been  found  swift  to  hear  it.  Even  Luther,  that 
great  man  of  God,  betrayed  the  deficiency — if  not  of  his  sj)iri- 
tual  knowledge  and  perception,  yet  of  his  doctrine  of  faith  and 
works — when  he  contemned  an  assuredly  genuine  portion  of 


JAMES  I.  25.  305 

Holy  Writ  as  "  an  epistle  of  straw."  It  might  have  been  ex- 
pected that  our  modern  preachers  of  mere  morality  and  good 
works  would  be  all  the  more  enthusiastic  in  their  estimate  of 
this  Epistle;  but,  strange  to  say,  that  is  far  from  being  the  case. 
For  what  reason,  they  themselves  do  not  clearly  know ;  but  to 
us  it  is  very  observable,  and  worthy  of  observation.  In  fact, 
the  Epistle  of  St  James  is  very  profound,  very  dogmatic,  very 
mystical,  but  by  no  means  merely  a  treatise  of  morality  as  such ; 
it  is  pre-eminently  a  New-Testament  writing,  and  by  no  means 
a  legal  one ;  its  teaching  furnishes  us  with  a  touchstone  for  the 
true  understanding  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  of  the  Law 
and  the  Gospel,  in  their  inmost  and  deepest  unity. 

It  is  more  well-meaning  than  intelligent  to  say  that  St 
James  here  wisely  enforces  the  law  and  good  works  upon  the 
h^'pocritical  upholders  of  faith,  in  order  that  they  might  be 
humbled  and  prepared  anew  for  the  consolation  of  redeeming 
grace.  That  he  does  not  teach  the  law  and  good  works  in  any 
such  independent  manner,  but  that  he  bases  all  doing  and  suf- 
fering upon  regeneration  alone,  has,  we  trust,  been  made  plain 
throughout  the  first  chapter.  The  whole  Epistle  is  consistent 
with  this;  even  in  the  second  chapter  he  only  demands  the 
living  works  of  faith,  as  St  Paul  rejects  the  dead  works  of 
nature.  But,  as  we  ha.ve  already  seen,  he  is  not  exclusively 
dealing  with' the  hypocritical  upholders  of  a  dead  faith:  they 
only  receive  incidentally  tlieii'  measru'e  of  condemnation.  Pie 
rather  presupposes  throughout  and  everywhere  the  existence  of 
faith:  the  Gospel,  understanding  thereby  the  first  revelation  to 
the  soul  of  redeeming  gi'ace,  is  not  before  him,  but  behind  him, 
in  this  Epistle.  He  proclaims  the  gi'ace  of  atonement  as  the 
grace  of  sanctijication ;  he  leads  us  onward  to  that  great  step, 
which  so  many  who  believe  understand  not  and  are  unwilling 
to  take, — from  justification  to  sanctification.  He  teaches  that 
which  is  the  predominant  subject  of  all  the  Epistles  excepting 
St  Paul's,  but  which  St  Paul  does  not  fail  to  teach  in  all  even 
of  his.  St  James  does  not  here  point  to  good  works,  even  the 
good  works  of  faith,  merely  as  the  counterpart  of  the  exagge- 
rated doctrine  of  faith  :  he  comprehends  both  in  their  deep  and 
perfect  unity.  His  w^ord  is  essential  to  the  completeness  of  the 
New  Testament ;  for  it  reconciles  the  two  opposing  systems  of 
those  who,  on  the  one  hand,  have  looked  too  much  to  justifica- 

u 


306  THE  PEKFECT  LAW  OF  LIBERTY . 

tion,  and  of  those  who,  on  the  other,  have  looked  too  exclusively 
at  sanctification,  in  their  views  of  redeeming  grace.  Let  ns 
now  consider  attentively  the  important  words  of  ver.  21,  which 
demand  our  most  careful  exposition. 

And,  first,  we  ask —  What  does  St  James  understand  here  hy 
the  lato  of  liberty  f  At  the  outset  we  answer — Manifestly  and 
assuredly  not  that  which  the  Jews  called  the  Law,  and  which 
was  given  by  Moses  at  Sinai  and  in  the  wilderness  ;  at  least  not 
the  Lttio  as  it  is  opposed  in  the  doctrine  of  the  New  Testament 
to  the  Gosjoel,  as  it  is  contrasted  with  the  free  and  unconditional 
bestowment  of  the  promise.  This  law,  in  its  exclusiveness  and 
rigour,  was  indeed  perfect  as  commandment ;  but  yet  it  was 
imperfect,  or  insufficient  to  save  us  and  make  us  holy — as  the 
same  Spirit  who  inspired  St  James  teaches  us  most  clearly  in 
the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews.  But  St  James  speaks  of  a  law 
which  he  calls  perfect ;  and  perfect  to  make  men  blessed  through 
living  knowledge  and  obedience.  He  speaks  of  a  law  still  valid 
for  believers  in  Christ ;  but  could  not  possibly  mean  to  contra- 
dict that  which  St  Paul  has  testified  concerning  the  abolition 
of  the  Law.  St  James  can  quote  in  the  second  chapter  the 
word  of  Moses,  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour  as  thyself!  more- 
over, the  specific  law,  Thou  shalt  not  have  respect  to  persons  !  and 
shows  that  the  transgressor  of  one  law  must  be  adjudged  guilty 
of  all;  and  he  is  thus  one  with  St  Paul,  who  testifies  concerning 
the  old  and  abolished  Law  that  it  is  good  for  its  legitimate  use, 
to' condemn  the  lawless  and  unrighteous  (1  Tim.i.  8-10).  This 
is  its  first  and  most  obvious  use,  for  which  it  was  given  before 
the  Gospel :  it  condemns,  curses,  and  kills,  until  the  Seed  of  the 
promise  comes ;  it  is  a  schoolmaster  to  discipline  for  the  grace 
of  Christ,  which  justifieth  through  faith  (Gal.  iii.  19,  24).  But 
it  cannot  give  life,  so  that  righteousness  should  truly  and  pro- 
perly come  by  the  law  (ver.  23).  St  James  takes  care,  indeed, 
not  to  lead  us  into  the  error  of  vainly  seeking  righteousness 
through  the  law ;  therefore  he  speaks  of  a  law  of  liberty,  and 
not  of  that  law  which  binds  us  by  its  obligations,  and  under 
the  yoke,  pressure,  and  curse  of  which  we  are. 

We  ask  again — Does  he  mean  the  laio  of  the  Spirit  in 
C'hrist  Jesus,  to  use  St  Paul's  words,  which  giveth  life,  which 
makes  us  free  from  the  law  of  sin  and  death,  which  fulfillctli 
in  us  a  righteousness  not  to  be  formed  in  us  by  any  mere  com- 


JAMES  I.  25.  307 

mandment  or  law  of  the  letter?  (Rom.  viii.  2-4).  Does  he 
mean  the  law  of  Christ ;  that  is,  the  dispensation  of  grace  in 
the  new  co\^nant  given  to  us  in  the  Son  (1  Cor.  ix.  21)  — 
which  St  Paid  in  another  place  (Gal.  vi.  2),  with  as  much  sim- 
plicity as  depth,  utters  in  the  one  word  of  love — Bear  ye  one 
another's  burdens  ?  Or,  the  gracious  economy  of  faith,  which 
St  Paid  (Eom.  iii.  27)  opposes  as  the  laio  of  faith  to  the  law  of 
works  ?  It  is  true  that  in  that  the  hard  and  cold  Tliou  shalt  ! 
which  can  never  be  responded  to  by  the  free  and  full  will  of  the 
soul  in  sinful  flesh,  is  taken  away  and  replaced  by  the  abundant 
offer  of  gi'ace —  Thou  canst !  There  is  to  sinful  man  no  curse 
unto  condemnation,  but  a  blessing  unto  salvation  ;  no  task- 
masters' driving  to  an  enforced  and  never-sufficing  service,  but 
a  full  freedom  from  all  bonds  and  debts,  freedom  from  the  con- 
demnation of  the  Law  itself  in  the  forgiveness  of  sins.  There 
is  no  judgment,  no  condemnation,  to  them  that  are  in  Christ 
Jesus!  (Rom.  \aii.  1);  and  they  can  say.  We  are  justified  by 
faith,  and  what  can  the  law  further  demand  from  us  ?  But 
when  we  ask  whether  St  James  here  means  this  Gospel  as  such 
as  it  is  opposed  to  the  "  law"  spoken  of  before,  and  altogether 
sundered  from  it,  we  must  reply  that  he  does  not ;  his  meaning 
is  somewhat  different  from  St  Paul's  in  the  passages  which 
have  been  cited.  He  does  not  mean  simply  the  loorcl  of  faith 
which  is  preached  (Rom.  x.  8),  but  the  word  which  is  of  doing 
as  well  as  of  believing  (Gal.  iii.  12) ;  for  he  speaks  of  a  deed, 
and  of  doers,  and  in  this  connection  he  speaks  of  a  law.  A  laAv 
of  liberty,  indeed ;  but  yet  a  law,  by  which  we  shall  be  judged  ! 
(ch.  ii.  12).  How  then  are  we  to  understand  this?  Assuredly 
only  thus,  that  in  fact  the  Law  remains  in  the  Gospel,  in  it  is 
established  and  fulfilled ;  he  terms  "  law  of  liberty"  the  law 
which  has  been  made  living  and  lifegiving  by  grace,  the  risen 
Law  glorified,  as  it  were,  in  the  Gospel.  We  must  constantly 
observe  that  the  whole  Epistle  abounds  with  allusions  to  the 
Sermon 'on  the  Mount.  So  already  the  word  concerning  hearers 
and  doers ;  afterwards,  ch.  ii.  13,  the  blessedness  of  the  merci- 
ful; ch.  iii.  12,  the  figs  from  thistles;  ch.  iv.  11,  evil  speaking 
and  judging;  ch.  v.  3,  the  rust  which  consumes  riches;  finally, 
ch.  V.  12,  and  mo.'jt  literally,  concerning  not  swearing  by  heaven 
or  earth,  the  yea  yea,  the  nay  nay.  Now,  what  was  the  law 
which  Christ  our  Master  Himself   preached  on  the  Mount? 


308  THE  PERFECT  LAW  OF  LIBEETY. 

Was  it  the  old  condemning  Law;  or  the  word  of  grace,  with  its 
assurance  of  justification  through  faith?  Neither  of  these 
alone  ;  hut  both  together  in  their  perfect  unity.  Christ  preaches 
the  Law  only  as  fulfilled  in  Himself,  who  had  come ;  yet  at  the 
same  time  as  yet  to  he  fulfilled  in  the  righteousness  which  Pie 
requires  :  He  preaches  the  Gospel  only  to  that  end,  that  the 
Law  may  be  fulfilled.  Precisely  in  the  same  sense  as  the  Lord 
of  glory  Himself  speaks,  James  the  servant  of  Jesus  Christ 
here  uses  his  peculiar  expression.  His  law  of  liberty  is  the  law 
of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  in  its  full  and  profound  meaning ; 
for,  in  speaking  of  hearing  and  doing,  he  manifestly  has  in  view 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  as  the  substance  and  epitome  of  the 
whole  preached  word  (Matt.  vii.  24-27).  His  words  are  not 
uttered  in  the  Old-Testament  spirit,  and  as  introductory  to  the 
subsequent  revelation  of  grace ;  but  he  points  those  who  stand 
and  glory  in  grace  to  the  Avord  of  Christ — which  teaches  that 
the  Law  remains  in  the  Gospel,  and  essentially  belongs  to  it, 
though  as  a  law  of  liberty.  This  is  the  other  aspect  of  that 
which  has  been  already  enlarged  upon  :  the  hearer  who  rightly 
understands,  who  receives  the  word  in  order  to  do  it,  does  not 
erroneously  regard  it  as  a  merely  imperative  and  exacting  law, 
but  as  a  word  of  grace ;  at  the  samic  time,  in  that  word  of  grace 
he  discerns  a  law  for  free  obedience.  For,  so  long  as  we  are 
not  perfect  doers  of  the  will  of  God  ;  so  long  as  the  mirror  of 
the  truth  shows  us  that  we  are  wanting  in  any  good  deed,  and 
that  any  evil  deed  is  present  with  us ; — so  long  even  for  us  the 
"Xaiu  "  remains  to  be  spoken  of.  Despise  not  this  solemn  word  ; 
evade  it  not  by  the  protest  that  thou  hast  to  do  only  Avitli 
grace  and  the  Gospel ;  otherwise  thou  wilt  go  astray  with  thy 
supposed  grace,  and  pervert  thy  so-called  freedom  into  evil. 
But  the  perfect  law  of  liberty  will  make  thee  free  to  all  that  is 
good,  if  thou  beholdest  it  intently  and  continuest  in  it  with  all 
thine  heart. 

What,  then,  is  the  heholdlng  and  continuing  therein,  of  which 
St  James  speaks  ?  No  other  than  the  right  understanding,  and 
the  right  holding,  of  the  word  in  its  unity  of  Law  and  Gospel. 
It  is  essential  that  there  should  be,  before  all  doing,  a  true  know- 
ledge and  understanding ;  as  our  Lord  says.  If  ye  know  these 
things,  happy  are  ye  if  ye  do  them  (John  xiii.  17).  For,  how 
can  I  obey  before  I  have  rightly  heard  ?    Forgetting  had  been 


JA3IES  I.  25.  309 

spoken  of  before  :  Wliat  a  man  holds  not  fast  he  holds  not  at 
all.  But  now  the  word  sinks  deeper  into  the  root  of  the  matter : 
"VVliat  a  man  does  not  understand  can  never  be  held  fast.  There- 
fore, let  us  beware  of  undervaluing  a  right  understanding  ;  let 
us  attach  to  it,  and  to  the  sound  doctrine  and  preaching  which 
minister  to  it,  their  due  importance !  These  St  James  presup- 
poses, when  he  speaks  of  the  word;  but  now  the  essential 
matter  is,  that  the  hearer  attain  to  an  entire  and  penetrating 
understanding.  The  forgetful  hearer  did  not  rightly  hear,  as 
we  have  seen,  and  that  was  the  cause  of  his  forc^ettinc.  He 
beheld  ordy  himself  in  the  glass ;  that  pleased  him  not,  that 
brought  him  no  help  ;  it  oppressed  and  troubled  him  ;  there- 
fore he  tm'ned  away  from  it.  This  represents  the  siqDerJicial 
among  hearers.  They  behold  not  in  reality  the  natural  face  of 
their  birth,  their  natural  inward  form  and  character  ;  and  hence 
go  away  from  the  glass,  to  strive  to  mend  their  outward  appear- 
ance by  works  of  their  own,  in  order  that  the  glass  may  reflect 
something  purer  and  more  attractive.  Or,  if  they  have  so  dili- 
gently beheld  as  to  perceive  their  essential  natural  sinfulness, 
they  have  not  beheld  profoundly  enough  :  for,  either  they  repel 
the  burdensome  condemnation  of  their  sin  ;  or,  they  despair  in 
repentance  without  faith,  Avhich  is  the  result  most  assuredly  only 
of  superficial  hearing.  But  there  is  a  similar  superficial  hearing 
of  the  Gospel  of  grace,  an  acceptance  of  the  message  of  forgive- 
ness which  goes  away  and  forgets  what  that  gi-ace  requires  and 
provides  for  a  new  obedience  ;  and  this  is  the  result  of  a  failure 
to  understand  its  requirement  and  provision.  Man  would  fain 
be  only  upon  Calvary,  where,  with  the  blood,  forgiveness  flows. 
He  persuades  himself  that  this  blood  cleanses  from  all  sin  ;  but, 
in  the  accomplishing  of  that  object,  he  thinks  from  Calvary  to 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  a  retrogression  !  This  is  the  indolent, 
false  dealing  with  faith,  which  corresponds  to  the  zealous  false 
dealing  with  works.  Yet  no  preacher  of  faith  is  responsible  for 
this  evil :  he  may  testify  mth  St  Paul — Do  ive  make  void  the 
laio  through  faith"?   God  forbid!  (Rom.  iii.  31). 

To  this  superficial  understanding,  which  is  not  merely  one- 
sided, but  views  both  sides  superficially,  St  James  opposes — 
But  he  that  looheth  into,  or  deeply  penetrates  !  He  beholds  and 
sees  both  at  once,  as  they  are  comprehended  in  the  one  Avord. 
He  knows  that  God  is  One ;  and  therefore  that  His  legal  and 


310  THE  PERFECT  LAW  OF  LIBERT T. 

His  evangelical  word,  His  requirement  and  His  promise,  are 
also  one.  "  Is  the  law  against  the  promise  1  God  forbid  !  If 
there  had  been  a  law  given  which  could  have  given  life,  verily 
righteousness  should  have  been  by  the  law"  (Gal.  iii.  20,  21). 
But,  similarly,  we  may  add  as  the  spirit  of  St  James  :  "  Is  the 
promise  against  the  law  of  God  ?  (The  Father,  forgive  them  ! 
against  the  Be  ye  perfect  I  so  as  to  retract  and  abolish  it  ?)  If  a 
Gospel  had  been  given  which  did  not  give  life  in  order  to  sanc- 
tification  and  the  fulfilment  of  the  law,  verily  righteousness 
would  not  have  been  through  the  Gospel !"  To  know  this  is  to 
know  the  full  truth,  which  giveth  life  and  freedom.  We  frst 
come  to  the  knowledge  of  the  "  great  distinction"  between  Law 
and  Gospel,  and  then  the  unity  of  both  ;  as  in  the  depth  of  the 
law  it  is  testified  that  God  will  redeem  and  save  sinners  through 
the  revelation  of  their  sins ;  while  in  the  depth  of  the  Gospel 
grace  itself  disciplines  and  puiifies  unto  obedience.  Thus  the 
faith  of  God's  elect  is  a  knowledge  of  the  truth  which  is  unto 
godliness  (Tit.  i.  1). 

This  intent  beholding  is  followed  by  continuing  therein ! 
When  thou  hast  thus  heard,  understood,  and  accepted  the  word ; 
when  thou  hast  looked,  as  it  were,  below  the  surface  of  this 
wonderful  mirror,  the  looking  into  which  saves  and  transforms ; 
when  it  has  shown  thee,  not  merely  thine  old  man,  but  also  the 
grace  of  Christ,  and  not  merely  His  grace  for  thyself  as  thou 
art,  but  also  thy  new  man  as  it  is  to  be  in  Christ ; — then  art 
thou  in  the  right  posture  for  the  entrance  of  the  power  of  God, 
which  will  work  all  its  mighty  effects  in  thee,  though  not  with- 
out thine  own  doing  of  that  which  God  doeth  in  thee.  This  is 
the  freedom  which  consists  in  the  union  of  thy  will  with  the 
Divine  ;  this  law  of  freedom  is  the  royal,  lifegiving  laio  of  love 
and  grace,  before  the  energy  of  which  all  stains  of  sin  and  all 
defects  of  strength  must  disappear.  Continue  therein  ;  hold  it 
firmly  fast,  declining  neither  to  the  right  hand  by  such  vain  de- 
pendence upon  grace  as  leaves  the  sin  untouched,  nor  to  the 
left  hand  by  vain  endeavours  to  save  and  mend  thyself  through 
good  works.  Such  a  man,  one  thus  continuing,  has  undergone 
a  change  through  the  word  ;  he  becomes  more  and  more  per- 
fectly not  a  forgetful  hearer,  but  a  hearer  in  the  power  and 
fruitful  office  of  the  word.  The  man  who  was  actually  a  hearer, 
but  has  forgotten  again,  forgot  through  the  evil  of  his  heart, 


JAMES  I.  25.  311 

through  his  lack  of  understanding  and  acceptance.  But  how  if 
the  heart  has  actually  understood  and  embraced  the  word  in  its 
true  meaning,  and  yet  no  fruit  has  been  brought  forth  unto 
perfection  ?  In  that  case  it  is  no  longer  matter  of  forgetfulness, 
which  pi'esupposes  error  and  weakness,  but  a  slighting  of  Christ, 
a  rejection  of  faith,  an  actual  departure  from  the  way  first 
entered  on.  Against  this  stands  the  abiding  therein;  the 
jyatience,  of  which  St  James  had  begun  to  speak,  vers.  3,  4, 
and  which  he  now  means  by  continuing.  This  is  the  patience 
and  contmuance  which  St  Paul  connects  with  good  works  in 
seeking  for  eternal  life  (Rom.  ii.  7).  He  wi'ites  also  to  the 
HebrcAVS,  just  as  St  James  does, — "Cast  not  away  therefore 
yom'  confidence,  which  hath  great  recompence  of  reward.  For 
ye  have  need  of  patience,  that  after  ye  have  done  the  loill  of  God 
ye  might  receive  the  promise"  (Heb.  x.  35,  36).  This  is  believ- 
ing^ or  holding  confidence  fast,  and  yet  at  the  same  time  doing  : 
hence  St  James  carefully  says— ^ Not  a  hearer  of  (or  unto)  forget- 
fuhiess  ;  but  an  actual  doer,  literally,  a  doer  of  the  work.  Not,  of 
the  works ;  for,  all  works,  of  which  ch.  ii.  afterwards  speaks,  are 
wrapped  up  in  this  one  great  and  good  work,  the  work  in  faith, 
or  the  work  of  faith  in  power  (1  Thess.  i.  3;  2  Thess.  i.  11). 

How  then  is  this  doer  blessed  in  his  deed  ?  This  is  the  last 
clause  in  the  saying,  and  is  now  only  to  be  fully  understood. 
Deed — thus  most  rigorously  must  we  accept  it ;  for  the  doing 
of  the  will  of  God  is,  and  has  ever  been,  the  goal  of  all.  We 
are  redeemed,  we  are  piuified,  that  we  may  be  zealous  of  good 
works ;  that  we,  ha^-ing  believed  in  God,  may  be  careful  to  be 
fomid  in  a  state  of  good  works  (Tit.  ii.  14,  iii.  8).  For,  faith 
without  works,  dead  faith,  cannot  bring  salvation.  Those  only 
enter  mto  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  who  do  the  will  of  the  Father 
in  heaven  (Matt.  vii.  21).  But  this  doing  is  not  a  concatena- 
tion of  all  kinds  of  ffood  works  according  to  the  law  of  detailed 
commandments,  not  this  and  that  and  the  other  act  of  obedience 
simply;  but  a  continual,  consistent,  living,  and  free  act  of  the 
new  man,  the  child  of  God.  This  proceeds  from  the  whole 
man,  from  the  principle  of  love  in  which  faith  works  ;  and  as 
such  it  is  inconsistent  with  the  patchwork  of  the  legal  nature. 
This  springs  from  a  constant  acceptance  and  retention  of  grace, 
a  continual  Hving  and  abiding  under  its  influence;  and  it  is 
an  obedience  both  of  freedom  and  delight;  and  must  not  he 


312  god's  pure  and  undefiled  service. 

who  thus  obeys  know  himself  to  be  blessed  and  happy  ?  Yes, 
verily,  as  our  Lord  Himself  said — Blessed  are  ye,  if  ye  do  them  ! 
(John  xiii.  17).  First,  Blessed  are  the  eyes  which  see  the  things 
that  ye  see !  Out  of  this  blessedness  of  faith  springs  a  new  life 
in  order  to  do  the  will  of  God ;  then  it  may  proceed.  This  do,  and 
thou  shalt  live  therein  !  (Luke  x.  23,  28).  Mark  that  St  James 
promises — He  shall  be  blessed  in  his  deed  ;  not —  On  account  of 
it,  for  it,  or  through  it.  Even  David,  without  the  full  knowledge 
of  Christ,  knew  enough  of  this  internally  free,  evangelical  way 
of  the  laios  fulfilment,  to  be  able  to  rejoice — In  keeping  Thy 
commandments  there  is  great  reward  (Ps.  xix.  11).  But  when 
the  grace  of  Christ  gives  to  us,  through  the  Holy  Spirit,  a  clear 
understanding  of  the  law  of  liberty,  and  the  power  of  a  true 
continuance  therein,  we  are  made  happy  with  all  the  ever-increas- 
ing benedictions  of  the  Lord's  Sermon  on  the  Mount; — from 
the  first  benediction  of  poverty  to  the  final  peace  in  persecution. 


xn. 

god's  pure  and  undefiled  service. 
(Ch.  i.  26,  27.) 

If  any  man  among  you  seem  to  be  religious,  and  bridleth  not  his  tongue,  but 
deceiveth  his  own  heart,  this  man's  rehgion  is  vain.  Pure  rehgion  and 
undefiled  before  God  and  the  Father,  is  this,  To  visit  the  fatherless  and 
widows  in  their  affliction,  and  to  keep  himself  unspotted  from  the  world. . 

Blessed  are  the  doers  of  the  rightly*  heard  ivord :  to  whom 
it  is  not  merely  a  law — as  it  is  to  those  who  burden  themselves 
with  works ;  to  whom  it  is  not  merely  a  gospel — as  it  is  to 
those  who  deceive  themselves  in  their  hearing  and  believing ; 
but  the  perfect  law  of  liberty !  Blessed  are  those  who  pene- 
trate this,  and  continue  in  it !  True  Christianity,  genuine  godli- 
ness, is  matter  oi  freedom :  for  God  desires  no  other  service  and 
obedience  than  that  which  proceeds  from  a  free  and  willing 
heart ;  and  if  His  Spirit  ruleth  in  us,  we  are  not  under  the  law 
(Gal.  V.  18).  But  we  are  in  the  law,  and  the  law  in  us. 
•'  Now  ye  are  free  from  sin,  nnd  have  become  the  servants  of 


JAMES  I.  26,  27.  313 

righteousness,  tlie  servants  of  God ;  ye  have  your  fruit  unto 
holiness ;  but  the  end  is  everlasting  life"  (Rom.  vi.  18,  22). 
St  tTames  presently  terms  the  same  a  serving,  a  service  of  God. 
But  this  he  does  not  mean  in  a  Jewish  sense,  as  St  Paul  before 
Agrippa  spoke  of  the  "  twelve  tribes  instantly  serving  God  day 
and  iiight,"  with  a  vain  labour  against  Avhich  all  the  prophets 
had  testified  to  them  through  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  so  that  even 
Sirach  could  say :  "  He  that  requiteth  a  good  turn  (thanketh 
God)  offereth  fine  flour ;  and  he  that  giveth  alms  sacrificeth 
praise"  (Ecclus.  xxxv.  2).  The  blood  of  Christ  now  cleanseth 
our  consciences  from  dead  works,  to  serve  the  living  God  (Heb. 
ix.  14).  We  are  the  circumcision,  who  serve  God  in  the  spirit 
(Phil.  iii.  3).  He  who  is  one  of  this  number  speaks  with  St 
Paul,  who  at  the  shipwreck  said,  "  This  night  there  appeared 
unto  me  an  angel  of  God,  whose  I  am  and  whom  1  served  (Acts 
xxvii.  23).  First,  we  are  God's ;  then  and  therefore  serve  we 
Him  in  the  free  o;ratitude  of  childlike  love.  Where  this  is  not 
the  case,  a  man  may  thinh  himself  religious ;  but  he  is  deceived, 
and  all  his  service  of  God  is  vain. 

Thus  St  James,  in  the  wisdom  which  embraces  every  aspect 
of  a  matter,  adjoins  a  warning  on  the  other  side — "But  under- 
stand rightly  the  blessed  doing  of  the  law  of  liberty !  Be  on 
vour  guard  ao;ainst  darkness  and  vain  imagination.!"  His 
word — If  any  man  among  you — requires  us  to  test  ourselves 
within  and  loithout,  whether  we  in  very  deed  serve  God  with  pure 
and  undefiled  service :  it  points  first  us  to  our  inward  selves  ;  and 
then  to  our  external  relation  to  the  world. 

But,  in  referring  to  our  inward  selves,  he  speaks  of  what  is 
seemingly  a  slight  evidence  of  self-government,  the  bridling  of 
the  tongue.  Of  gross  and  glaring  works  of  the  flesh  he  cannot 
obviously  speak  at  first,  since  no  man  guilty  of  them  can  think 
that  he  is  serving  God.  Nor  does  he  address  those  who,  though 
free  from  gross  external  sins,  yet  altogether  live  for  themselves, 
and  serve  themselves  instead  of  God,  whose  minds  are  fleshly, 
earthly,  and  selfish.  Knowing  this  to  be  the  case  in  your  own 
conscience,  whenever  you  enter  into  yom-self,  how  can  you  think 
of  reckoning  yourself  among  the  servants  of  God  ?  Is  there 
any  man  among  you  who  cannot  find  any  ground  for  thinking 
himself  in  any  sense  a  servant  of  God — let  him  be  converted 
from  the  error  of  his  way,  so  that  he  may  find  grace  in  time  ! 


314  god's  pure  AlHD  UNDEFILED  SERVICE. 

But  we  have  to  do  with  the  sincere  service  and  obedience  of  God 
in  the  new  hfe.  It  is  to  that  St  James  appKes  his  test ;  and  it 
appKes  immediately  to  the  central  principle — Ai'e  ye  conscien- 
tious and  zealous  in  little  things  ?  Faithfulness  in  little  things^ 
dear  brethren,  is  not  merely  something  beautiful,  and  pre-emi- 
nent, which  however  is  final,  and  consummates,  as  its  crown,  the 
general  fidelity  of  the  character ; — but  our  Lord  says  as  solemnly 
as  truly — He  that  is  faithful  in  that  which  is  least,  is  faithful 
also  in  much ;  and  he  that  is  mif aithful  in  that  which  is  least, 
is  unfaithful  also  in  much  (Luke  xvi.  10).  Only  he  who  ap- 
proves his  fidelity  in  little  thhigs  possesses  it  in  great  things, 
and  in  his  character  generally ;  hence  it  is  natural  and  right 
that  a  new  and  earnest  obedience  will  begin  at  once  with  little 
things.  He  who  in  these  little  things  sets  out  with  a  con- 
scienceless carelessness,  has  generally  no  real  and  absolute  ear- 
nestness in  liim.  Hence  so-called  trivialities  are  the  sure  test 
of  the  inner  mind  and  character.  Conscientiousness  down  to  the 
farthmg  is  the  standard  of  a  truly  honourable  piety;  little  acts  and 
.single  words  show  the  full  and  pure  spirit  of  obedience  in  the 
soul=  One  may  appear,  not  only  before  the  world,  but  before 
the  brethren,  as  a  religious  man,  and  one  may  seem  to  himself 
to  be  so ; — but  the  true  service  of  God  before  the  Father,  who 
seeth  in  secret,  who  esteems  little  things  great  for  the  sake  of 
the  heart  which  prompts  them, — the  heart  which  He  penetrates 
through  all  words  and  actions, — is  a  very  different  matter ! 
Such  a  walk  before  God  is  animated  by  a  tender  fear  of  every 
the  slightest  defilement,  by  a  strict  fidelity  to  purity  and  right- 
eousness down  to  the  most  trivial  word  of  sudden  discom'se. 

Therefore  St  James  makes  the  tongue  once  more  an  indi- 
vidual example,  and  asks  sharply  whether  we  bridle  it  before  God 
and  for  God's  sake.  It  is  only  an  example  ;  but  he  wisely  and 
significantly  shows  the  most  decisive  and  plainest  mark  of  faith- 
ful and  firm  self-government  generally :  as  he  himself  after- 
wards says — He  that  sinneth  not  in  word  is  a  perfect  man,  and 
able  to  bridle  the  whole  body  (ch.  iii.  2).  That  means,  first  of 
all — He  that  lays  earnest  stress  upon  not  sinning  with  his  tongue, 
exhibits  an  absokite  and  pure  earnestness  to  deal  faithfully  Avith 
himself.  Alas,  how  many  so-called  joioms  there  are — who  at  least 
are  reputed  to  be  so — whose  free,  unbridled  tongues  show,  if  not 
when  heard  abroad,  when  heard  at  home,  that  their  piety  is  of 


JA3IES  I.  26,  27.  315 

little  worth !  We  have  already  heard  a  word  against  swiftness 
to  speak ;  and  we  shall  yet  have  a  solemn  ntteroice  concerning 
the  untamed  tongue  in  ch.  iii.  Therefore,  upon  this  point  we 
will  say  no  more  now ;  except  that  we  would  lay  stress  upon 
the  words  which  are  added — lie  that  bridleth  not  his  tongue, 
however  otherwise  pious  he  may  seem  to  be,  deceiveth  his  own 
heart!  But  this  means  more  than  merely  that  he  deceiveth  himself, 
and  errs  in  wilful  guilt,  when  he  holds  his  vain,  empty  service  for 
the  true  service  of  God.  It  implies  that  he  who  serves  not  God 
in  truth,  serves  all  the  more  on  that  account  sin.  In  him  who 
does  earnestly  and  rigorously  from  the  heart  rule  the  tongue,  the 
tongue  rules  the  heart ;  it  hurries  him  soon  back  again  into  sins, 
and  thus  misleadeth  the  heart,  as  we  shall  leam  in  tlie  third 
chapter.  But  we  can  also  learn  it  in  ourselves,  if  we  diligently 
observe  and  examine  our  own  hearts  :  he  also  who  governs  not 
his  eyes,  he  who  does  not  rule  his  fancy,  he  who  does  not  repress 
and  mortify  liis  lusts,  he  who  lets  anything  in  himself  have  its 
free  and  unfettered  com'se  according  to  nature — is  offering  a 
service  to  God  which  is  vain  I 

Thus  St  James  at  the  first  pointed  us  to  ourselves ;  he  then 
adds  another  word,  which  summons  us  to  test  ourselves  as  to  our 
external  relation  to  the  world  and  our  neighbour.  Here  two  things 
are  of  importance,  as  essential  to  the  true  and  pure  service  of 
God  :  the  exercise  of  love,  which  scorns  and  neglects  no  needy 
fellow-man ;  but,  combined  with  that,  a  prudent  separation 
from  the  sin  of  the  tvorld. 

This  is  from  first  to  last  the  sum  of  the  commandment, 
Love  out  of  a  pure  heart,  and  a  good  conscience,  and  faith  un- 
feigned (1  Tim.  i.  5).  Hence  St  James  speaks  afterwards  of 
fulfilling  the  royal  law  of  loving  our  neighbour*  as  ourselves  ! 
(ch.  ii.  8).  He  who  does  that,  is  the  royal  ruler  over  himself 
with  and  in  God,  and  truly  free;  only  he  who  has  exercised 
mercy  will  stand  in  the  judgment  before  that  Saviom-  and 
Judge,  who  Himself  first  exercises  mercy  towards  the  sinner, 
and  then  says — Go  and  do  likewise!  (Luke  x.  37).  Go  whither, 
dear  brethren  ?  Every  Avhither  ;  for  in  all  ways,  which  yc  may 
frequent  in  life,  the  poor,  and  the  miserable,  and  the  helpless 
lie.  The  sin  of  the  world  everywhere  provides  that  we  shall  have 
the  poor  and  the  mihappy  around  us  ;  he  who  has  a  heart  full 
of  love  will  find  opportunity  enough  of  showing  that  it  is  in  his 


316  god's  pure  A2iD  UNDEPILED  SERVICE. 

heart.  Look  around  you ;  beliold  and  tliink  how  vast  a  field 
for  mercy !  Are  ye  industrious  and  zealous  enough  in  doing  the 
work  of  the  Lord,  the  saving,  comforting  work  of  His  holy  love  ? 
St  James  once  more  selects  one  example  in  this  domain,  that  we 
may  rightly  understand  our  duty — the  tribulation  of  orphans 
and  widows.  So  he  speaks  in  the  proverbial  language  of  the 
Old  Testament :  as  Job  mentions  the  widow  and  the  fatherless 
as  first  among  the  wretched  whom  he  had  helped  (ch.  xxi.  16, 
17)  ;  as  Moses  constantly  makes  them  prominent  in  the  Law; 
as  the  prophets  perpetually  exhort  the  people  in  their  behalf ; 
and  as  God  calls  Himself  the  Father  of  the  fatherless,  and  the 
Judge  of  the  widow  (Ps^  Ixviii.  6).  And  thus  we  are  at  the 
same  time  pointed  to  all  kinds  of  misery  which  need  consola- 
tion and  help  ;  to  break  bread  to  the  hungry,  to  shelter  the  home-- 
less,  to  clothe  the  naked  (Is.  Iviii.  7).  And  all  this  holds  good 
even  still  more  impressively  of  spiritual  destitution,  in  which 
souls  hunger  and  thirst,  needing  the  consolations  of  grace,  the 
bread  and  clothing  of  righteousness.  But  St  James  does  not 
mean,  as  the  Pharisees  of  all  times  have  perverted  his  words  in 
lying  hypocrisy,  the  external  works  of  so-called  human  charity ; 
but  the  loving  and  exercising  mercy  as  religious  acts  before  God 
the  Father.  It  is  therefore  love  out  of  a  pure  heart,  iindcfiled 
by  hypocrisy,  vainglory,  and  the  delusion  of  merit.  He  does 
not  so  much  mean  the  works,  which  are  the  evidence  of  the 
spirit  of  charity,  as  the  spirit  of  charity  itself,  the  warm  impulse 
of  the  heart  which  sends  us  to  the  miserable  in  their  affliction. 
Therefore  he  does  not  speak  of  the  food,  clothing,  and  general 
supply  of  the  wants  of  the  oqjhans  and  widows ;  but  of  the 
visiting  them  in  their  affliction,  the  taking  them  into  the  heart, 
the  coming  to  them  with  the  best  that  we  have  for  all  kinds  of 
tribulation,  that  is,  with  the  true  consolation.  Yes,  verily,  those 
who  are  still  without  the  consolation  which  God's  grace  imparts 
are  widows  and  orphans  indeed  ;  they  are  the  truly  ^^^t'etched  in 
the  way.  They  are  everywhere  to  be  f omid ;  yet,  if  we  would 
succour  them,  we  must  visit  them,  seek  them,  that  is,  go  out  of 
our  own  house,  not  remaining  self-satisfied  in  our  own  happiness, 
peace,  and  enjoyment. 

But,  secondly,  St  James  significantly  adds,  that  in  all  this 
walking  and  working  in  the  world,  loe  must  keep  oiirselves  un- 
spotted from  the  world !     In  the  beginning  of  the  same  verse, 


JAMES  I.  2G,  27.  317 

the  pure  and  undefiled  service  of  God  was  the  not  staining 
our  ownselves  inwardly  by  unfaithfulness,  neglect  of  self-denial, 
and  sin :  he  now  warns  us  also  against  beino;  stained  from  with- 
out.  For  as  everywhere  in  the  world  we  find  cUstress  which 
should  be  helped,  so  also  we  find  connected  with  it  much  sin ; 
indeed,  this  sin  is  the  essential  distress,  and  it  tempts  us  even 
while  we  are  endeavouiing  to  oppose  and  destroy  it.  O  how 
narrow  is  the  way  of  the  pure  service  of  God ;  how  easily  may 
something  of  the  ungodly  nature  of  the  world  adhere  to  us,  our 
hands  and  hearts,  while  we  have  so  much  to  do  with  it,  and  we 
dare  not  fly ! 

But  what  is  the  world  ?  St  James  uses  the  same  New-Tes- 
tament phraseology  as  St  John  :  Whosoever  has  not  in  him  the 
love  of  the  Father,  whosoever  doeth  not  in  this  love  the  will  of 
God,  but  is  ruled  over  by  the  lust  of  the  flesh,  and  the  lust  of 
the  eyes,  and  the  pride  of  life,  is  of  the  world  (1  John  ii.  15-17). 
The  world  loves  its  own,  the  vain  serve  vanity,  the  creature 
instead  of  the  Creator ;  that  is,  so  long  as  it  remains  the  world, 
it  retains  the  hatred  against  God  which  rejected  Christ  and 
crucified  Him,  as  He  said — The  world  hateth  Me  (John  vii.  7, 
XV.  18).  And  this  world  is  always  in  the  midst  of  Christendom ; 
where  is  for  ever  the  offence  and  the  woe  (Matt,  xviii.  7). 

Who  is  not  of  the  world  ?  First,  and  alone  by  nature  among 
men,  the  One,  the  Second  Man,  who  to  repair  the  fall  of  the 
First  came  as  the  Lord  from  heaven  (1  Cor.  xv.  47) ;  who  tes- 
tified— Ye  are  of  this  world,  I  am  not  of  this  world!  (John 
viii.  23).  Then  through  Him  all  who  have  received  Him,  and 
to  whom  He  hath  given  power  to  become  the  childi'en  of  God 
(John  i.  12)  ;  who  have  embraced  by  faith  the  truth  that  Pie 
gave  Himself  for  our  sins,  to  deliver  us  out  of  this  present  evil 
world,  according  to  the  will  of  God  and  our  Father  (Gal.  i.  4). 
Can  any  man  among  us  think  that  he  is  a  child  of  God,  with- 
out knowing  how  he  became  such  through  the  regeneration 
which  follows  faith  in  the  name  of  Jesus,  without  knowing 
that  the  Saviour  in  His  mercy  has  saved  and  snatched  him 
from  the  mass  of  evil  ?  They  who  are  no  longer  of  the  world 
can  say — "  We  know  that  we  are  of  God,  and  the  whole  world 
lieth  in  wickedness.  We  know  that  the  Son  of  God  is  come, 
not  only  into  the  world,  but  into  our  hearts,  which  also  lay  in 
wickedness,  and  hath  given  us  an  understanding  for  the  know- 


318  god's  pure  and  undefiled  service. 

ledge  of  Him  that  is  true,  and  for  life  in  Him  that  is  true" 
(1  John  V.  19,  20).  To  such,  forsooth,  the  whole  word  of  God 
in  the  New  Testament  speaks  as  St  James  does :  "  Though  the 
world  hate  you,  ye  must  love  the  loorld  in  the  love  of  God,  ac- 
cording to  the  mercy  of  Christ  which  is  in  you!"  That  is  as 
true  as  it  is  in  another  sense  that  we  must  not  love  the  world, 
nor  anything  that  is  therein  !  Both  consist  together  in  the  spirit 
of  all  who  serve  God  in  the  spirit,  and  do  the  will  of  the  Father. 
Through  Christ  the  world  is  crucified  unto  us,  and  we  unto 
the  world  (Gal.  vi.  14), — yet  on  the  same  cross  the  world  is  at 
the  same  time  reconciled  to  us,  and  we  to  the  Avorld.  Thus  we 
must  not  separate  ourselves  in  a  hateful  spirit  from  those  who 
in  their  wretchedness  are  the  objects  of  our  contempt — that  is 
verily  a  vain  religion  ! — but  live  soberly,  righteously,  and  godly 
in  the  world  (Tit.  ii.  12) ;  not  being  of  the  world,  however,  and 
not  walking  loith  the  world.  As  God's  children,  unrebukeable 
in  the  midst  of  a  crooked  and  perverse  nation,  among  whom  we 
appear  as  lights  in  the  world  (Phil.  ii.  15) — out  of  which  we 
would  save  and  convert  as  many  as  our  love  can  reach. 

Thus  we  may  hope  now  to  understand  what  this  means  in 
the  most  comprehensive  and  deepest  sense  for  the  children  of 
God,  who,  being  still  hi  the  world,  are  not  and  would  not  be 
again  of  it,  but — unspotted  from  the  world  !  He  who  has  pre- 
sented himself  in  the  reasonable,  spiritual  service  to  the  Father 
of  mercy  for  a  living,  holy,  acceptable  sacrifice,  conforms  not 
himself  to  this  loorld!  (Rom.  xii.  1,  2).  But  woe  to  the  fools 
who  flatter  themselves  that  this  is  to  be  speedily  accomplished 
by  a  few  external  fashions  !  We  eat  and  drink  and  dress  like 
others ;  we  use  this  world,  we  have  to  do  with  the  creature ;  we 
do  not  as  men  among  our  fellow-men  deny  ourselves  to  hu- 
manity, and  the  common  fellowship  of  life ;  but  we  take  good 
care  that  we  abuse  nothing,  that  we  suffer  ourselves  to  be  en- 
tangled and  seduced  by  nothing  and  by  no  man.  As  He  is, 
in  whom  the  love  of  the  Father  was,  so  are  we  also  in  this  world 
(1  Johil  iv.  17).  We  hold  intercourse,  indeed,  with  sinners ; 
we  visit  those  who  are  both  bodily  and  spiritually  sick  and  miser- 
able, offering  to  them  consolation,  and  blessing,  and  help  from 
God ;  but  we  give  good  heed  that  we  do  not  receive  from  them 
any  defilement  of  then*  ungodliness.  But  in  this — as  every  one 
who  understands  what  we  speak  about  will  agree — there  is 


JAMES  I.  2G,  27.  ;'5l9 

danger  enough  to  make  us  walk  most  heedf ully :  everywhere 
there  are  illusions  which  may  lead  us  astray,  temptations  to 
vanity  and  sin,  assaults  of  the  unbelieving  and  perverse  nature, 
requiring  all  om-  circumspection.  A  very  slight  complacency  in 
one  thing  that  is  wrong  may  first  ensnare  us,  and  awaken  a 
slumbering  lust  in  the  heart :  presently  it  goes  further,  and  the 
unbridled  tongue  enters  into  the  danger,  and  this  again  leads 
to  fellowship  in  act — until  at  last  the  Demas  is  fully  formed 
who  forsakes  the  communion  of  the  faithfiil,  and  loves  this  pre- 
sent world  again!  (2  Tim.  iv.  10).  Or,  if  this  last  sad  result  does 
not  follow,  there  is  a  grievous  distraction  of  heart,  a  departure 
from  the  way,  a  defilement  of  the  spirit.  Therefore,  the  last 
^  test  which  St  James  gives  for  the  pmity  of  the  service  of  God 
is  this — in  the  works  of  love  to  keep  oneself  unspotted  from  the 
world  !  He  speaks  as  if  we  in  ourselves  were  altogether  pure  and 
without  spot ;  but,  thus  warning  us,  he  gives  us  to  remember  that 
we  have  within  us  still  the  inflammable  matter  of  sin.  Other- 
wise the  sin  without  would  no  more  touch  or  lay  hold  upon  us 
than  upon  Him  in  whom  there  was  no  sin. 

St  James,  however,  would  not  say  that  we  might  uttei'ly 
escape  all  defilement ;  for  he  knew  well,  even  as  the  Master 
had  taught  liim,  that  at  least  the  feet  must  be  soiled  by  our 
walking  in  this  world,  and  that  they  must  continually  be 
washed  (John  xiii.  10).  But,  as  he  had  said  before,  whoso 
seeth  at  once  in  the  glass  of  the  word  these  easily  contracted 
spots,  looks  deeply  info  that  same  mirror  and  finds  also  the  puri- 
fication. He  who  diligently  and  sincerely  strives  to  cleanse 
and  sanctify  himself,  who  puts  away  immediately  every  stain — 
contimieth  in  the  perfect  law  of  liberty.  And  that  is  the  great 
essential  in  all  complete,  pure,  and  determined  earnestness  of 
obedience,  which  esteems  nothing  to  be  unimportant. 


320  RESPECT  OF  PERSONS. 


XIII. 

NO  RESPECT  OF  PERSONS  IN  THE  LOVE  OF  THE  NEIGHBOUR. 

(Ch.  ii.  1-9.) 

My  brethren,  count  not  that  faith  in  Jesus/3hrist,  our  Lord  of  glory,  suffers 
respect  of  persons.  For  if  there  come  unto  your  assembly  a  man  with  a 
gold  ring,  in  goodly  apparel,  and  there  come  in  also  a  poor  man  in  vile 
raiment ;  And  ye  have  respect  to  him  that  weareth  the  gay  clothing,  and 
say  unto  him.  Sit  thou  here  in  a  good  place  ;  and  say  to  the  poor,  Stand 
thou  here,  or.  Sit  here  under  my  footstool :  Are  ye  not  then  partial  in 
yourselves,  and  are  become  judges  of  evil  thought  ?  Hearken,  my  beloved 
brethren,  Hath  not  God  chosen  the  poor  of  this  world  rich  in  faith,  and 
heirs  of  the  kingdom  which  He  hath  promised  to  them  that  love  Him  ? 
But  ye  have  despised  the  poor.  Do  not  rich  men  oppress  you,  and  draw 
you  before  the  judgment-seats  ?  Do  not  they  blaspheme  that  worthy  name 
by  the  which  ye  are  called  ?  If  ye  fulfil  the  royal  law  according  to  the 
Scripture,  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour  as  thyself,  ye  do  well.  But  if  ye 
have  respect  to  persons,  ye  commit  sin,  and  are  convinced  of  the  law  as 
transgressors. 

St  James  has  spoken  of  the  charitable  visitation  of  the  poor, 
the  widows,  and  the  fatherless  :  he  now  connects  his  discoui'se 
with  what  preceded,  in  such  a  manner  as  still  most  keenly  to 
test  our  love  and  mercy,  that  in  which  we  should  serve  God  in 
oiu*  neighbour.  But  he  tests  it  with  reference  to  our  conduct  in 
relation  to  the  contrast  and  distinction  existing  in  the  world 
between  rich  and  poor,  exalted  and  humble.  Tlie  rich  and  the 
poor  must  meet  together ;  the  Lord  is  the  Maker  of  them  all 
(Prov.  xxii.  2).  Wherefore  and  to  what  end  hath  He  made 
the  one  rich,  the  other  poor?  He  knoweth  full  well  in  His 
wisdom  :  He  knoweth  moreover,  what  we  also  may  and  should 
know,  that  it  is  not  Himself  who  hath  made  rich  all  that  are 
rich,  and  poor  all  that  are  poor ;  but  avarice  hasteneth  after 
riches,  and  sin  plunges  into  poverty.  The  poor  and  the  rich 
meet  together  ;  the  Lord  lighteneth  both  their  eyes  (Prov.  xxix. 
13).  Forsooth,  when  that  is  the  lot  of  both,  they  meet  in  very 
deed.  But  mark  that  Solomon  in  this  sentence  places  the  poor 
first :  O  that  their  eyes  would  receive  the  light  of  the  Lord  ! 
If  this  day  the  possession   of   earthly  goods  was  reduced  to 


jajMes  II.  1-9.  321 

equality,  how  long  would  that  continue,  how  soon  would  the  sin 
of  men  restore  the  disparity  !  But  God's  government  suffers  it 
to  continue,  in  order  that  His  grace  may  operate,  and  turn  e\dl 
to  good  account,  in  ways  which  to  our  dim  eyes  are  too  deep  and 
too  high.  Do  not  prematurely  intrude  into  the  Lord's  province  ; 
you  would  rather  make  the  evil  worse  !  The  only  equality  to 
enlightened  eyes  is  found  in  the  kingdom  of  God,  through  faith 
in  Jesus  Christ.  The  present  age  seeks  by  art  and  cunning 
devices  to  redeem  itself  from  the  misproportion  which  exists  in 
this  matter,  and  which  indeed  avaricious  industry  and  ungodly 
lust  of  possession  are  continually  increasing  :  this  has  indeed 
become  one  of  the  chief  problems  of  dabblers  in  statecraft, 
reformers,  and  clamourers  for  right  and  freedom.  But  they 
will  never  accomplish  their  purpose,  while  they  take  not  the 
method  which  God's  word  here  prescribes.  It  is  that  of  which 
St  James  here  speaks.  But  not  as  of  itself  the  main  thing ; 
for  it  only  prepares  the  way  for  the  reference  to  the  royal  law 
of  love,  ver.  8 — to  the  perfect  fulfilment  of  the  perfect  law  in 
the  genuine  works  of  faith,  vers.  10-14.  But  we  Avill  first 
consider  these  words  in  themselves. 

My  brethren,  think  not  that  the  faith  of  Jesus  Christ,  our 
Lord  of  glory,  may  be  held  loitli  respect  of  "persons  I  That  is  the 
very  general  positiofl  which  comes  first,  and  ver.  9  afterwards 
returns  to  it.  What  respect  of  persons  is,  the  world,  which  con- 
stantly exliibits  it,  knows  very  well  without  much  explanation : 
we,  dear  brethren,  it  may  be  hoped,  know  in  addition  that  it  means 
the  external  respect  which  does  not  fall  on  the  riglit  person^  that 
is,  the  man  as  he  really  is  in  himself,  and  according  to  his  true 
value,  but  looks  at  the  specious  outward  appearance  to  the  eyes. 
That  God  does  not  look  at  the  person  in  any  such  sense,  is 
known  to  all  who  know  anything  of  God ;  and  yet  how  hard  it 
is  to  come  to  a  right  appreciation  and  application  of  this,  is  seen 
in  the  difficulty  with  which  the  first  Apostle  was  brought  to  con- 
fess— Now  know  I  it  of  a  truth  !  (Acts  x.  34).  On  the  day  of 
the  revelation  of  the  righteous  judgment  of  God  it  will  be  mani- 
fest beyond  all  thought  and  expectation  of  om^s,  that  there  is  no 
respect  of  persons  with  God  (Rom.  ii.  11).  The  doing  right- 
eousness and  the  doing  wickedness — this  will  be  the  sole  and 
final  distinction.  This  is  plainly  enough  declared  in  the  present 
life  to  all,  whether  poor  or  rich,  whether  servants  or  masters. 

X 


322  RESPECT  OF  PERSONS. 

Whatsoever  good  any  servant,  as  a  servant  of  Christ  devoted  to 
the  will  of  God,  doeth,  the  same  shall  he  receive.  But  the 
masters  must  do  what  is  equal,  and  know  that  their  Master  also 
is  in  heaven,  and  that  there  is  no  respect  of  persons  with  Him 
(Eph.  vi.  6-9).  O  how  much  does  that  comprehend !  There 
are  manifold  varieties  of  servants  and  masters,  of  poor  and 
rich,  of  lowly  and  exalted,  of  ignorant  and  wise,  to  whom  less  or 
to  whom  more  is  given.  And  this  extends  to  the  kingdom  of 
God  and  the  Church  of  Christ,  even  among  the  highest  prero- 
gatives and  gifts  of  apostolical  honour ;  so  that  St  Paul  could 
boldly  say  concerning  the  first-chosen  Apostles,  "  But  of  those 
who  had  respect,  whatsoever  they  were,  it  maketh  no  matter  to 
me  :  God  accepteth  no  man's  person  !"  (Gal.  ii.  6).  We  shall 
not  pursue  this  too  far,  but  prefer  to  observe  how  St  James, 
the  Lord's  brother  according  to  the  flesh  (in  the  eyes  of  men 
truly  a  great  pre-eminence  !),  himself  sets  a  good  example  ;  for 
he  never  makes  mention  of  this  honour  throughout  the  Epistle, 
but  places  himself  in  common  with  the  brethren  under  the  supre- 
macy of  our  Lord  of  glory. 

This  expression  is  carefully  chosen  for  his  phrase,  which 
properly  runs  as  a  question,  "  Do  ye  hold,  forsooth,  with  respect 
of  persons  the  faith  in  this  our  Lord  of  glory  ?  "  Can  these  tw"o 
things,  rightly  considered,  consist  together"?  He,  the  Lord  of  all 
lords,  was  poor  and  lowly  in  this  world.  Again,  how  does  the 
glory  which  is  His  and  which  He  gives  to  His  people,  the 
glorious  riches  of  this  mystery  among  the  Gentiles,  Christ  in 
you  the  hope  of  glory  (Col.  i.  17),  make  pale  all  the  honour  of 
this  lower  world !  How  supremely  and  beyond  all  other  con- 
cern important  that  every  man  should  mind  that  one  thing,  the 
being  presented  perfect  in  Christ  Jesus  !  (Col.  i.  28).  The  fact 
that  there  is,  even  among  Christians,  so  much  respect  of  per- 
sons, shows  how  little  the  genuine  and  perfect  faith  in  the  Lord 
of  glory  fills  their  hearts.  But  the  least  and  most  external 
thing  which  belongs  to  a  man's  person,  and  which  others  may 
regard,  is  his  present  possession  of  worldly  goods;  and  neverthe- 
less, as  evidence  of  their  perverse  folly,  this  is  the  first  and  the 
last  thing  that  most  men  regard.  Is  it  not  now  as  the  son  of 
Sirach  said,  "The  poor  man  is  honoui'ed  for  his  skill,  and  the  rich 
man  is  honoured  for  his  riches  ?  "  (Ecclus.  x.  30).  That  is,  even 
if  the  poor  man's  skill  is  not  despised  on  account  of  his  poverty; 


JA3IES  IT.  1-9.  323 

wliich,  however,  often  liappens,  as  Eccles.  ix.  14,  15  more 
authoritatively  tells  us.  There  was  in  Christ's  time  among  the 
Jews — who,  besides  the  priesthood,  recognised  no  other  dis- 
tinction of  degree — so  deeply-rooted  a  disposition  to  honour  the 
rich  and  to  regard  Mammon,  that  He  constantly  made  that  the 
object  of  His  severe  denunciation.  And  is  our  Christendom 
wanting  in  this  Jewish  spirit  ?  Rather,  this  age  of  ours,  which 
would  overturn  all  other  government,  seems  likely  to  succumb 
under  the  vilest  of  all  aristocracies,  that  of  wealth,  the  meanest 
of  all  government,  that  of  money !  We  are  told,  my  brethren, 
as  Christians — Let  it  not  be  so  among  you !  Take  heed  lest 
you  reject  such  trite  and  seemingly  needless  admonition.  Prac- 
tically, it  is  not  so  generally  understood  that,  as  before  God 
riches  and  poverty  are  of  no  avail,  so  also  among  us  they  should 
make  no  difference.  It  was  not  fully  understood  even  in  the 
apostolical  Church,  for  St  James  gives  us  a  striking  examj^le. 

If  into  your  assembly,  that  of  the  Divine  service,  there 
enter  a  man  with  gold  ring  and  magnificent  apparel,  a  rich 
lord  who  bears  his  riches  visibly  about  him ;  and  with  him  a 
poor  man  in  mean  garments,  showing  the  traces  of  toil  and 
need ;  and  ye  should  look  at  once  upon  the  man  in  the  costly 
apparel,  and  say  to  him  with  reverence — Take  this  seat  in  the 
best  place !  but  to  the  poor  man — Thou  may  est  stand  there,  or 
sit  down  here  at  my  footstool !  do  ye  not  make  distinctions 
among  yourselves,  and  become  judges  of  evil  thoughts  f  Thus 
does  St  James  paint  from  the  life ;  and,  although  he  gently 
puts  it  as  only  a  possible  case,  we  feel  that  he  had  seen  what  he 
describes.  That  the  members  of  the  church  are  not  meant — 
who  had  their  own  places — but  strangers  who  came  in,  is 
evident  from  the  whole  context.  The  assembhes  of  Christians 
were  open  to  every  man ;  and  it  often  happened  that  unbelievers 
came  in,  as  we  read  in  1  Cor.  xiv.  23-25.  That  such  a  visitor 
might  become  conscious  of  Divine  truth,  might  worship  God, 
and  avow  that  God  did  dwell  among  His  people — this  is  w^hat 
every  man  in  the  assembly  should  have  thought  of,  and  nothing 
else.  But  this  eminent  and  gilded  man  must  have  a  place  of 
honour,  as  if  there  was  something  special  in  him  even  here  be- 
fore God,  on  whom  such  a  man  almost  conferred  an  honoiu* ; 
he  must  be  flatteringly  regarded,  as  if  much  depended  for  the 
Church  upon  such  personages  being  won.     On  the  other  hand, 


324  RESPECT  OF  PEESONS. 

the  poor  man  is,  this  time  at  least,  very  curtly  settled  with  hy 
the  side  of  the  rich  man.  If  ye  do  so,  asks  St  James  (strictly 
translating  his  words) — have  ye  not  made  distinction  in  or  of 
yoiu'selves  (with  evil  meaning),  and  become  judges  in  evil 
thoughts,  on  false  principles'?  And  how  deep-rooted  must 
these  evil  thoughts  have  been,  when  we  read  that  in  an  apos- 
tolical church  the  rich  allowed  the  poor  to  hunger  at  the  love- 
feasts  of  the  Sacrament,  and  shamed  those  who  had  nothing  ! 
(1  Cor.  xi.  21,  22).  Wliat  wonder,  then,  if  we  find  in  om*  own 
churches  seats  of  honour  for  the  great,  and  many  other  visible 
marks  of  distinction,  reaching  even  to  priority  at  the  table  of 
the  Lord ! 

For  there,  most  assuredly,  we  are  all  alike  before  the  Lord. 
If  the  rich  man  has  not  that  best  robe  which  the  Father  gave 
to  His  recovered  son,  and  that  ring  of  the  sons  of  God  upon 
his  hand — he  has  no  value  or  worth  before  God.  But  a  poor 
man,  if  he  belongs  to  the  great  multitude  of  those  who  come 
out  of  great  tribulation,  and  have  washed  their  robes  and  made 
them  white  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb — who,  bearing  that  in 
mind,  can  dare  to  do  him  dishonour  ?  St  James  laid  the  scene 
in  the  place  of  Divine  worship  for  striking  conviction  ;  but  he 
means  to  say  that  we  ought  not,  in  life  generally,  to  have  false 
respect,  and  form  wrong  judgments,  and  establish  evil  distinc- 
tions. For  we  are  everywhere  together,  and  by  each  other's 
side,  hefore  God.  And  He  is  the  same  God  who  has  in  this 
world  made  the  rich  and  the  poor,  or  suffered  them  to  be  so ; 
who  also  commands  His  children  by  His  Spirit  to  give  even  ex- 
ternal honour,  where  that  may  be  done  without  sin,  to  whom 
honour  is  due.  Thus  the  false  equalising  of  distinctions  esta- 
blished by  God  is  of  evil ;  and  springs,  among  the  low,  from 
the  same  pride  which  would  gladly  invade  the  highest  places. 
Thvis,  also,  the  bitter  contempt  and  jealousy  of  superiors,  which 
often  masks  itself  under  the  semblance  of  piety,  still  less  con- 
sists with  the  faith  of  the  Lord  of  glory,  who  Himself  upon 
earth  gave  honour  where  it  was  due.  But  where  it  is  not  an 
external  matter,  based  upon  the  customs  of  this  world,  where 
the  kingdom  of  God  and  its  order  are  concerned,  where  the 
question  is  the  manifestation  of  faith  and  charity, — all  evil 
distinctions  should  disappear  for  us  who  believe.  St  James,  in 
ch.  i.  9,  10,  had  already  said  how  the  lowly  should  glory  and 


JAMES  II.  1-9.  325 

the  rich  man  humble  himself :  according  to  the  same  measure 
which  we  thus  apply  to  ourselves,  we  should  measure  and 
estimate  all  others.  Thus,  for  example,  in  the  choice  of  officials 
in  the  Church,  the  exalted  should  not  be  preferred  before  the 
poor,  who  may  possess  much  of  the  wisdom  coming  from  above ; 
in  om*  confederations  for  the  kingdom  of  God,  we  should  not 
(as  has  been  too  frequently  done,  to  the  hindrance  of  success) 
seek  to  have  associates  whose  only  recommendation  is  their 
earthly  dignity.  And  this  principle  should  be  extended  to  all 
our  greetings  of  the  poor,  and  to  our  equal  reception  into  our 
houses  of  the  lowly  and  of  the  great.  "  It  is  not  meet  to  de- 
spise the  poor  man  that  hath  imderstanding ;  neither  is  it  con- 
venient to  magnify  a  sinful  man  "  (Ecclus.  x.  23).  Assuredly, 
the  distribution  does  not  always  hold  good  which  assigns  under- 
standing to  the  poor,  and  godlessness  to  the  rich ;  but  how  is  it 
on  the  whole  and  as  the  rule  ?  Our  Epistle  goes  on  to  tell  us. 
"  Hearken,  my  beloved  brethren  !  Hath  not  God  chosen 
the  poor  of  this  world,  who  are  rich  in  faith,  and  heirs  of  the 
kingdom,  which  He  hath  promised  (without  respect  of  persons) 
to  those  who  love  Him  ?  "  Hear,  in  relation  to  this,  how  election 
is  in  this  passage  spoken  of!  The  poor  are  not  arbitrarily 
chosen  that  faith  may  be  given  to  them ;  but  those  who  are, 
who  become,  rich  in  faith,  are  therefore  the  elect,  are  heirs  of 
the  kingdom  on  the  ground  of  their  faith  ;  for  God  has  indeed 
promised  His  kingdom  and  inheritance  to  all  who  will  believe, 
and  love  Him  in  return  for  His  love.  Will  not  then  God,  who 
loveth  all  men,  save  also  the  rich  ?  Yes,  verily,  they  may  be- 
come everywhere  His  elect,  even  as  they  are  His  called ;  but 
they  have  become  so  only  in  few  cases :  God  hath  chosen,  has 
been  able  to  choose,  the  poor  in  preference  to  them.  This  is  a 
fact  so  obvious  to  all  enlightened  eyes,  that  the  question  may 
be  asked — Why  doth  God  leave  the  rich  in  their  riches,  and 
not  make  them  all  poor  ?  The  preaching  of  Jesus  was  directed 
from  the  beginning  especially  to  the  poor ;  they  were  mostly 
the  poor  who  believed  the  Apostles'  preaching,  as  1  Cor.  i. 
26-28  testifies.  And  is  the  case  different  now?  If  you  would 
seek  those  who  are  rich  in  faith,  and  love  God  with  a  true  con- 
fidence of  hope  towards  the  heavenly  kingdom,  you  must  go — 
as  not  among  the  wise,  mighty,  and  illustrious — so  not  among 
the  rich.     Seek  them  in  the  cottages,  and  imder  mean  garments. 


326  EESPECT  OF  PERSONS. 

Aiicl  where,  through  the  grace  of  God,  the  saying  which  makes 
the  salvation  of  the  rich  so  difficult  seems  to  have  its  exceptions, 
mark  well  whether  there  be  delusion  in  the  matter.  Thus 
much  is  certain,  that  the  Christianity  of  a  rich  man  is  much 
more  frequently  spurious,  and  unable  to  meet  the  test,  than 
that  of  a  poor  man.  The  test  is  primarily  that  of  the  chari- 
table behaviour  towards  the  poor.  Hear,  and  take  heed  to  the 
sorrowful  condemnation  of  the  servant  of  God — But  ye  have 
done  despite  to  the  poor!  God  hath  honom^ed  him,  only  ye 
have  neglected  and  contradicted  that !  Is  he  rich  in  faith 
before  Him — let  not  yom*  faith,  if  you  have  it,  despise  his 
riches :  the  whole  inheritance  is  his ;  you  have  a  future  king 
before  you,  who  only  waits  for  his  crown.  And  if  not  yet,  his 
very  poverty  may  make  his  salvation  probable,  and  his  place 
among  the  poor  brethren  at  the  last.  Therefore,  scorn  not  the 
poor ! 

The  rich  on  the  other  hand?  Well  for  them  if  they  as 
poor  have  become  rich  in  faith  !  For  they  may  do  so.  Abra- 
ham, the  father  of  the  faithful,  was  very  rich,  but  all  the 
greater  was  the  virtue  of  his  faith ;  and  into  his  bosom  many  a 
Lazarus  comes,  before  even  one  rich  man  finds  his  way  there. 
Joseph  of  Arimathsea  was  a  rich  man  ;  but  also  a  truly  honour- 
able counsellor,  who  understood  the  counsel  of  God,  waited  for 
the  kingdom  of  God,  became  a  disciple  of  Jesus  in  company  with 
the  poor  Galileans,  confessed  to  Him  in  His  shame  concerning 
Whom  it  is  written  for  us — Ye  know  the  grace  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  that  though  He  was  rich,  for  our  sakes  He  became 
poor,  that  ye  through  His  poverty  might  become  rich  (2  Cor. 
viii.  9).  But  are  there  many  of  them  who  thus  believe,  and 
know,  and  act,  and  confess  ?  To  the  Christians  of  his  time  St 
James  could  write — Are  they  not  (for  the  most  part)  the  rich, 
who  use  violence  towards  you,  and  drag  you  before  the  judg- 
ment ?  Do  they  not  blaspheme  that  worthy  name  by  which  ye 
are  called?  What  they  inflict  upon  you  with  violence  and 
judgment  is  a  subordinate  matter ;  it  is  a  sign  and  testimony 
how  they  are  minded  towards  the  good  name  of  the  Lord  of 
glory,  in  which  also  His  poor  should  be  blessed  as  heirs  of  the 
kingdom.  Thus,  ^/ye  would  regard  the  right  person — that  is 
St  James'  meaning — ye  must  judge  accordingly,  and  in  every 
case  anticipate  the  poor  with  love,  and  rather  postpone  the  rich 


JAMES  II.  1-9.  327 

man,  in  whom  ye  at  first  beliold  only  liis  riclics.  "  Lord,  who 
shall  abide  in  Thy  tabernacle  ?  who  shall  dwell  in  Thy  holy 
hill  f  Among  the  manifold  replies  to  that  great  question,  we 
read — ^^  He  in  icJiose  eyes  a  vile  person  is  contemned  (despising 
those  whom  God  rejects),  but  who  honoureth  them  that  fear 
the  Lord"  (Ps.  xv.  1-4).  And  in  the  New  Testament  it  is 
said,  at  least — "Let  us  do  good  to  all  men,  but  especially  to 
them  that  are  sharers  of  faith  !"  To  every  man,  indeed  ;  and 
neglect  should  never  be  unaccompanied  by  love.  Certainly, 
St  James  does  not  mean  that  we  should  deny  to  the  proud  and 
unbelieving  rich,  the  love  of  Christ  which,  like  the  doors  of  the 
assembly,  is  open  also  to  them.  All  he  insists  upon  is,  that  the 
poor  standing  by  him  should  not  be  scorned  with  a  sinful  distinc- 
tion !  He  requires  only  equal  love  without  respect  of  persons  : 
it  is  to  that  his  whole  discourse  tends. 

"  If  ye  fulfil  the  royal  law  according  to  the  Scrij)ture,  Thou 
shait  love  thy  neighbour  as  thyself,  ye  shall  do  well !"  This  is 
the  law  which  royally  reigns  over  all  other  individual  enact- 
ments ;  this  is  the  law  of  the  King  in  the  kingdom,  of  the 
King  of  love,  the  law  of  Christ  who  bore  the  burdens  of  all ; 
and  it  is  to  us  as  a  new  commandment.  Bear  ye  one  another's 
burdens!  (Gal.  vi.  2).  This  is  the  law  and  right  for  the  imita- 
tion of  Plis  kings,  of  His  chosen,  royal,  and  free  generation,  His 
priestly,  holy  people,  which  show  forth  the  virtues  of  Him  who 
hath  called  them,  in  their  own  deeds  (1  Pet.  ii.  9).  Thus,  as 
our  King  looketh  and  judgeth  in  love,  so  also  we,  and  not 
otherwise.  Then  our  impartial  love  finds  in  every  man  a 
neighbour,  a  fellow-redeemed  and  fellow-called  man ;  it  prefers 
no  one,  it  disparages  no  one,  on  the  ground  of  anything  in 
himself  which  should  not  affect  the  estimate.  Thus  do  we  well. 
O  what  a  test  of  our  love  is  this,  penetrating  our  slightest  deeds 
and  words,  and  the  very  inmost  recesses  of  our  hearts !  But  if 
ye  have  respect  of  persons,  ye  do  what  is  sin,  and  are  convicted 
of  the  law  as  evil-doers.  The  law  of  Moses  told  the  judges,  who 
primarily  had  to  do  with  what  was  simply  right — "  Ye  shall 
hear  the  small  as  well  as  the  great ;  ye  shall  not  be  afraid  of  the 
face  of  man  "  (Deut.  i.  17).  But  neither  were  the  poor  to  be 
preferred — "  Thou  shalt  not  respect  the  person  of  the  poor,  nor 
honour  the  person  of  the  mighty ;  but  in  righteousness  shalt 
thou  judge  thy  neighbom*"  (Lev.  xix.  15).     And  in  the  same 


328      HOW  THE  LAAV  IS  TO  BE  UNDERSTOOD  AND  KEIT. 

chapter  the  holy  right  of  love  follows — "Thou  shalt  love  thy 
neighbour  as  thyself :  I  am  the  Lord "  (ver.  18).  He  who 
violates  love  commits  sin,  is  condemned  of  the  law  as  a  trans- 
gressor— and  not  of  this  or  that  commandment,  but  of  the 
entire,  indivisible,  royal  law  of  love,  of  which  St  James  goes  on 
to  speak. 


XIV. 

HOW  THE  LAW  IS  TO  BE  UNDERSTOOD  AND  KEPT. 

(Ch.  ii.  10-13.) 

For  whosoever  shall  keep  the  whole  law,  and  yet  offend  in  one  point,  he  is 
guilty  of  all.  For  He  that  said,  Do  not  commit  adultery,  said  also,  Do 
not  kill.  Now  if  thou  commit  no  adultery,  yet  if  thou  kill,  thou  art 
become  a  transgressor  of  the  law.  So  speak  ye,  and  so  do,  as  they  that 
shall  be  judged  by  the  law  of  liberty.  For  he  shall  have  judgment  with- 
out mercy,  that  hath  showed  no  mercy;  and  mercy  rejoiceth  against 
judgment. 

St  James  has  given  one  example,  selected  one  instance,  in 
which  the  deportment  of  believers  in  their  individual  actions 
did  not  correspond  with  the  general  knowledge  which  their  faith 
gave  them.  Does  respect  of  persons  avail  before  God,  avail 
before  Jesus  Christ  ?  We  know  well  that  it  does  not !  But 
then  he  gives  an  illustration  which  is  not  fancied,  but  drawn  from 
the  life.  He  does  not  enter  into  the  complications  of  the  life 
of  believers  with  the  world,  the  all-pervading  customs  of  which 
might  almost  form  an  excuse  for  Christians,  if  they  should 
sometimes  forget  their  Lord,  and  not  keep  themselves  zinspotted 
from  respect  of  persons — though  it  cannot  admit  of  real  excuse, 
since  all  should  be  of  faith  in  order  not  to  be  of  sin.  No,  he 
speaks  of  the  assembly  engaged  in  the  worship  of  God,  where 
so  much  exhortation  is  heard  against  sin  that  it  Avould  be  the 
heaviest  punishment  to  many  to  be  obliged  to  speak  or  do, 
before  the  assembly  in  the  church,  what  they  speak  or  do 
before  and  afterwards.  If,  then,  of  that  place  it  may  be  said 
— Ye  have  despised  the  poor — how  much  more  in  their  com- 
mon life !     And  there  are  many  other  like  things,  concerning 


JAMES  II.  10-13.  329 

which  the  law  condemns  us  as  transgressors, — let  every  man 
think  of  them  for  himself !  How  far  is  our  faith  from  being 
all-penetrating,  our  love  from  being  pure  and  perfect !  But 
St  James'  design  is  not  simply  to  humble  us  into  this  confes- 
sion :  he  has  in  connection  with  that  another  design.  He  who 
transgresses  one  commandment  which  pertains  to  the  rights  of 
love,  injures  the  entire  royal  law ;  the  transgressor  in  the  in- 
dividual instance  is  on  that  very  account  not  a  keeper  and 
fulfiller  of  the  whole.  He  would  lead  us  to  the  fulfilment  of 
the  law  in  freedom,  from  wdthin  outwardly :  he  therefore 
teaches  us  first  rightly  to  understand  the  law  as  one  wdiole, 
that  we  may  keep  it  in  its  integrity,  and  with  all  the  heart. 
Hoio,  then,  does  St  James  teach  us  to  understand  and  to  keep 
the  law  ?  We  must  understand  it  in  the  undivided  unity  of 
the  whole  ;  and  then  keep  it  in  the  living  freedom  of  the  loving 
heart. 

The  very  name,  "  the  law,"  gives  testimony  to  the  unity  of 
the  many  commandments.  Many  laws,  statutes,  and  ordi- 
nances, gave  the  Lord  to  His  people  by  Moses  ;  yet  even  then 
the  Lawgiver  cried — Hear,  0  Israel!  The  Lord  our  God  is 
one  Lord ;  and  thou  shalt  love  Him  with  all  thine  heart,  with 
all  thy  mind,  and  with  all  thy  strength  !  (Deut.  vi.  4,  5). 
Thou  shouldst  not  set  before  thyself  the  commandments  and 
statutes  as  dead  and  rigid  enactments  for  thyself,  and  in  their 
mere  letter ;  but  thou  shouldst  direct  thy  heart,  in  everything 
that  is  said,  to  Him  ivho  hath  said  it.  He  is  one  ;  thy  heart  is 
one ;  love  from  thy  heart  to  the  Lord  thy  God  is  the  one  and 
true  fulfilment  of  the  whole  law.  O  if  they  had  understood 
this  !  But  Israel  heard  not ;  they  forgot,  even  when  they 
would  hear  and  obey  most  diligently,  this  essential  Hear,  0 
Israel!  They  counted  the  commandments  ;  they  distinguished 
between  greater  and  less — obviously,  that  they  might  here  and 
there  find  some  which  they  could  dispense  themselves  from  keep- 
ing, without  great  sin.  The  Lord  Christ  led  them  back  again 
to  the  words  of  their  Moses,  where  He  embraces  the  first  and 
the  second  table  in  the  two  commandments  of  the  one  love; 
and  testifies  to  them  significantly — On  these  hangs  the  whole 
law !  In  that  word  He  refers  them  to  a  symbolical  token  which 
they  wore,  without  understanding  it,  upon  their  garments — to 
the  fringes  or  tassels  appointed  in  Num.  xv.  38,  39,  to  be  worn  in 


330      HOVr  THE  LAW  IS  TO  BE  UNDERSTOOD  AXD  KEPT. 

the  lappets  of  their  robes,  with  a  blue  riband  to  gather  up  and 
hold  the  many  threads.  The  same  blue  riband  which  fastened 
the  high  priest's  frontlet,  "  holiness  to  the  Lord,"  was  also  upon 
the  borders  of  the  garments  of  the  priestly-royal  people  called 
unto  holiness.  And  it  is  love,  upon  which  all  the  threads  of  the 
many  commandments  hang  indivisibly  and  together.  But  the 
pharisaic  spirit  forgot  the  riband,  and  cared  only  for  the 
thi'eads.  We  Christians  have  been  better  taught,  and  have 
learned  in  our  earliest  Catechism  the  "  end  of  all  the  com- 
mandments." If  we  all  perfectly  understood  the  unity  of  the 
law  in  love,  it  would  not  seem  strange,  but  the  evidently 
natural  consequence,  that  St  James  should  say — For  whoso- 
ever shall  keep  the  whole  laio,  and  yet  offend  in  one  point,  he 
is  guilty  of  all  /  But  are  there  not  many  who  must  honestly 
confess  that  this  is  hard  to  be  understood,  and  itself  a  stone  of 
offence  I 

Indeed,  this  retains  its  rigid  truth  in  all  times  for  the  per- 
verted mind,  which  says  or  thinks — "  This  and  that  and  the 
other  I  faithfully  keep,  according  to  God's  commandment ;  this 
and  that  and  the  other  I  avoid,  according  to  His  prohibition  : 
will  not  this  avail  for  me,  if  here  or  there  one  thing  should  be 
found  wanting  ?  To  keep  the  lohole  law,  and  fail  in  not  one 
single  thing — who  can  so  precisely  and  constantly  mark  all 
the  precepts  ?"  Thus,  they  piece  together  their  keeping  of  the 
commandments,  their  obedience,  their  love  to  God  and  their 
neighbour,  out  of  individual  acts  ;  and  are  ready  enough  to 
forget  this  thing  or  that  in  which  they  are  found  transgressors, 
flattering  themselves,  as  St  James  says,  speaking  only  according 
to  their  perverted  view,  that  they  have  kept  (tolerably  well,  or 
almost)  the  whole  law !  If  the  one  thing  is  objected  to  them 
in  which  they  have  failed,  they  cry  —  It  is  but  one  thing! 
This  is  glaringly  the  pharisaic  spirit,  which  regarded  only  the 
isolated  acts,  and  knew  nothing  of  the  indivisible  whole.  "  He 
that  offends  in  one  point;"  —  St  James  does  not  mean  one 
single  failiu'e  occurring  through  infirmity  or  precipitation  (al- 
though he  afterwards  in  ch.  iii.,  2  uses  the  same  word),  but  an 
abiding,  predominant  conduct  in  violation  of  one  precept  to 
which  we  cannot  submit ;  a  persistent  repugnance  of  the  will 
and  life  to  this  or  that  ordinance  which  lies  as  a  stone  of 
stumbling   in   our  way,   and  at  which  tee   always  take  offmce 


JAMES  II.  10-13.  331 

whenever  it  occurs  in  our  loay.  And  in  this  sense  his  saying  is 
incontrovertiblj  true.  For,  if  my  heart  and  will  does  not 
accord  with  any  one  command  of  God,  it  is  absolute  proof  that 
my  so-called  keeping  of  all  the  rest  is  by  no  means  genuine, 
and  comes  not  from  a  heart  supremely  submissive  to  the  Law- 
giver. If  a  father,  leaving  home,  left  ten  injunctions  for  the 
guidance  of  his  child,  and  that  child  reserved  one  of  them  for 
transgression,  would  it  avail  him  to  say — Father,  I  have  been 
obedient;  I  have  kept  nine  of  the  commands  imposed  upon  me  ? 
Every  sin  thus  reserved  and  retained,  every  continuous  trans- 
gression of  one  word,  spoken  by  the  same  God,  pervades  with 
"vvi'ong  our  whole  obedience,  blasts  our  righteousness  before  the 
law,  and  makes  all  our  beautiful  reckonings  vain.  For  He  who 
hath  said,  Do  not  commit  adultery !  said  also.  Thou  shalt  not 
kill !  If,  therefore,  thou  commit  not  adultery,  but  dost  kill, 
thou  art  a  transgressor  of  the  law,  and  not  merely  of  this  one 
violated  precept ;  for  thou  art  not  submissive  in  thy  heart  to 
Him  who  said  both  one  and  the  other.  St  James  uses  the 
rough  letter  of  the  law,  the  spirit  of  which  testifies  that  all 
hatred  is  murder,  and  all  impure  desire  adultery ;  we  must  not 
therefore  (in  the  ai'ch-pharisaic  spirit)  limit  the  words  to  the 
mere  external  act.  He  mentions  the  first  two  precepts  of  the 
second  table,  those  against  hatred  and  lust ;  and  the  two  are 
one  :  for  all  hatred  of  our  neighbour  is  an  impure,  adulterous 
lusting  against  holy  love  ;  and  all  false  love  of  the  flesh,  which 
would  entertain  itself  on  the  flesh  of  another,  bears  in  itself 
most  essentially  the  hatred  of  the  true  person.  ISIurder  and 
licentiousness  are  significantly  related.  And  as  in  these  two 
specimens,  so  in  all  the  rest.  He  who  thinks  that  on  one  side  he 
is  standing  in  the  obedience  of  holy  love,  but  falls  out  of  it  on  the 
other,  is  not  standing  firmly  at  all.  Mark  well  what  sin  it  is 
in  thyself  which  testifies  against  thee,  and  which  among  the 
commandments  is  the  stone  of  stumbling  that  betrays  thy  want 
of  perfect  accordance  with  the  law.  If  thou  commit  no  adul- 
tery and  do  not  kill,  yet  if  thou  stealest  or  liest,  it  is  all  the 
same.  And  the  word  goes  on  in  its  meaning — If  thou  dost  not 
absolutely  steal,  but  boldest  fast  an  unrighteous  possession, 
what  a  lie  it  is  to  say,  I  steal  not !  If  thou  lovest  thy  neigh- 
bour—that is,  almost  all  people  save  here  and  there  one  enemy 
whom  thou  hatest — thou  lovest  not  thy  neighbour  as  thy  neigh- 


332        HOW  THE  LAW  IS  TO  BE  UNDERSTOOD  A^B  KEPT. 

hour,  but  only  because  he  is  not  thy  enemy.  If  thou  adniittest 
the  conviction  of  the  Spirit  in  many  things,  but  resistest  Him 
in  one — thou  art  not  in  any  sense  submissive  to  Him  in  thy 
heart. 

That  we  all  fail  in  many  things,  St  James  well  knew.  Are 
we  then  guilty  of  the  whole — does  the  law  condemn  us  all  as 
transgressors  ?  Yes  and  no,  according  as  you  understand  it ; 
rather  according  to  your  own  relation  to  the  law.  St  James 
would  not  lead  us  to  such  a  conclusion  as  would  warrant  our 
saying,  with  a  false  doctrine  which  has,  alas !  with  too  much 
subtlety  been  mingled  with  the  true — "  With  the  law  man  can 
never  accomplish  anything ;  let  us  therefore  give  up  all  thought 
of  its  fulfilment :  we  are  free  from  the  law,  and  must  hold  fast  the 
righteousness  which  is  of  faith!"  Free  indeed  Ave  are  from  the 
curse  and  the  driving  of  the  law ;  but  are  we  free  from  its  claims 
to  be  perfectly  kept  ?  God  forbid !  Would  that  be  righteousness, 
which  should  suffer  a  man  to  remain  in  any  unrighteousness  ? 
Against  this  very  perversion  St  James  here  writes  !  He  teaches 
us  the  great  and  decisive  distinction  : — whether  the  law  still 
lies  in  our  way,  and  hangs  upon  our  souls  ;  or  whether  its  spirit 
lives  in  us,  so  that  we  strive  to  accomplish  it  with  all  our  heart, 
to  keep  the  whole  as  a  whole,  to  relax  nothing  in  it  down  to  its 
slightest  requirement.  And  this  is  no  legal  striving,  but  the  true 
work  of  faith  in  power,  in  spirit,  and  in  love  ;  a  doing  which  for 
ever  finds  something  to  do  and  to  leave  undone,  but  yet  is  funda- 
mentally already  one  whole  act  of  the  heart  and  of  the  life. 

Thus  he  teaches  us  to  keep  the  law  in  the  living  freedom  of 
the  loving  heart ;  for  thus  has  it  become  to  us  a  law  of  liberty y 
as  he  says  again  ;  and  in  this  second  place  it  is  perfectly  plain 
what  he  so  terms.  Certainly  not  the  Gospel  as  opposed  to  the 
law,  but  the  same  law  of  commandments  to  be  kept ;  to  be  kept, 
however,  by  the  willing  spirit  as  a  law  of  love  understood,  and 
become  living  for  faith  and  in  faith.  David  prayed  to  God 
—  Unite  my  heart  therein  and  thereto,  that  I  may/<?flr  Thy  name! 
(Ps.  Ixxxvi.  11).  He  who  thus  prayed  already  stood  in  the  fear 
of  God,  and  thus  attained  to  say — /  love  Thee  with  my  whole 
heart !  (Ps.  xviii.).  And  God  looked  at  his  heart :  David, 
although  he  had  committed  adultery  and  mui'der,  remained 
through  his  penitence  a  man  after  God's  o\\ti  heart.  He  who 
quickly  rises  from  his  fall,  has  not  wholly  fallen.    He  who  fulfils 


JAMES  II.  10-13.  333 

one  commandment  from  the  ground  of  his  soul,  has  kept  the 
whole  law ;  and  his  sins  against  other  commandments  no  longer 
proceed  absolutely  from  the  depth  of  his  heart.  Thus  only 
should  we  regard  it,  and  judge ;  thus  does  the  loving  God  of 
love  judge,  who  is  Himself  the  Judge  as  He  is  the  Lawgiver ; 
not  the  dead  commandments  in  their  individual  character  judge 
us.  If,  through  the  Spirit  of  regeneration,  I  am  become  one 
with  love,  which  is  the  spirit,  ground,  and  sum  of  the  law,  in  my 
united  and  whole  heart,  then  its  commandments  no  longer  con- 
demn me — "  Lo  here  or  lo  there,  thou  evil  transgressor !  Here 
thou  revealest  thy  character  !"  But  they  graciously  point  me  the 
way  in  which  I  must  walk  more  entirely  in  the  truth  of  God, 
which  is  the  sole  desire  of  my  sincere  heart  (Ps.  Ixxxvi.  11). 
If  Christ  lives  in  my  heart  through  faith,  then  all  things  pro- 
ceed from  faith  for  ever  into  love,  in  that  love  to  be  rooted  and 
grounded  (Eph.  iii.  17).  Then  ceases  altogether  the  anxious 
reckoning  and  distinguishing — This  and  that  I  have  kept,  that 
I  have  not  yet  kept !  Then  there  is  pure  liberty  of  life  and  of 
love,  the  voluntary  impulse  of  the  heart  in  the  inner  man  :  the 
question  then  is  not  so  much  to  repent  of  this  or  that  omission, 
as  to  pray  and  work  ourselves  through  love  into  the  oneness  with 
the  law  of  liberty,  to  become  strong  in  the  inner  man.  This  is, 
forsooth,  what  St  James  here  teaches  us ;  as  strongly  as  St  Paul 
himself  he  declares  our  freedom  from  all  legal  impulse  to  good 
works,  and  preaches  that  love  which  springs  from  faith  in  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  as  the  work  of  works ;  but  he  likewise  most 
impressively  urges  upon  us,  "  as  free,  not  to  use  our  liberty  for 
a  cloak  of  wickedness"  (1  Pet.  ii.  16).  He  will  not  drive  us 
with  a  goad,  but  in  evangelical  grace  he  cries — So  speak  ye,  and 
so  do  !  This  means  for  a  certain  class  of  people,  indeed,  as 
ver.  14  continues  it,  "  Do  not  only  speak  of  obedience  and  love, 
practise  it  also  ^rith  all  earnestness  and  diligence !"  But  for  us 
all  it  further  means,  "  Be  as  careful  about  the  speaking  as  about 
the  doing;  no  longer  make  an  evil  distinction  between  word 
and  work,  and  greater  and  lesser  sins  in  the  one  and  the  other ! 
Be  it  your  concern  to  transgress  in  no  word  of  your  mouth !" 
St  Paul  utters  his  evangelical  denunciation  of  the  slightest  act 
of  wrong  with  the  right  formula,  Behold,  thou  walkest  not  ac- 
cording to  love !  (Rom.  xiv.  15) ;  and  the  same  holds  good  of 
every  word  also  which  wrongs  om"  neighbour,  Behold,  thou 


334   HOW  THE  LAW  IS  TO  BE  UNDERSTOOD  AND  KEPT. 

speakest  this  not  according  to  love  /  Be  ashamed,  and  take  heed ; 
be  more  slow  to  speak !  If  we  in  this  manner  judge  ourselves 
according  to  the  law  of  liberty,  and  exercise  ourselves  from 
the  heart  to  govern  om'  walk — then  shall  we  also  be  judged  of 
God  by  the  law  of  liberty.  He  will  look  at  the  heart,  and  the 
love  which  actuates  it ;  so  that  the  voice  of  the  individual  pre- 
cepts which  testifies  against  individual  falls  shall  be  silenced  in 
the  righteous  judgment  of  grace. 

Shall  be  judged — that  certainly  remains,  and  with  that  St 
James  seals  the  evangelical  exhortation.  For,  even  the  law  of 
liberty  is  still  a  law  ;  but  where  there  is  law,  there  is  judgment 
according  to  it.  The  deepev'  the  one  seizes  and  penetrates, 
the  deeper  does  the  other.  "  I  desired  only  thy  volmitary  love, 
and  I  find  it  not  in  thee" — will  be  the  keenest  condemnation  at 
the  last !  Therefore  will  judgment  without  mercy  proceed  upon 
him  who  exercised  no  mercy  ;  but  mercy  rejoiceth  against  judg- 
ment. The  true  and  final  judgment  will  determine  its  decisions 
by  this,  whether  our  hearts  are  found  or  not  in  the  love  of  God  ; 
every  other  judgment  will  give  way  to  that.  Whether  our  love 
was  or  was  not  genuine,  and  consequently  a  doing  and  Avilling- 
ness  to  do  of  the  inmost  heart  and  the  entire  hf  e,  will  decide  and 
determine  all.  Everywhere  in  the  world  there  is  sin  and  dis- 
tress ;  consequently,  everywhere  opportunity  to  exercise  our 
love  as  mercy  in  forgiving  and  imparting,  as  God  forgives  and 
imparts  to  us.  The  judgment  without  mercy  upon  him  who 
(with  all  his  external  legality)  has  not  thus  acted,  will  not  only 
upon  the  mighty  and  those  in  high  places  be  severe  (Wisd.  vi. 
5-9),  but  upon  every  justified  man  who  will  merit  the  sharp 
word — Thou  wicked  servant,  shouldst  thou  not  have  had  com- 
passion upon  thy  fellow,  even  as  I  had  compassion  upon  thee  ? 
(Matt,  xviii.  33).  But  mercy  rejoiceth  against  judgment ! 
This  is  a  marvellous  and  profound  saying  of  St  James,  to  which 
it  is  fit  that  we  should  devote  special  consideration. 


JAMES  II.  13.  335 

XV. 

MERCY  REJOICETH  AGAINST  JUDGMENT. 

(Ch.  ii.  13.) 

For  he  shall  have  judgment  without  mercy,  that  hath  showed  no  mercy  ;  and 
mercy  rejoiceth  against  judgment. 

It  has  been  observed,  that  "  to  discern  the  incomparable 
fulness  and  depth  of  Holy  Scripture,  we  have  only  to  test  any 
other  book  as  it  is  tested,  by  dividing  it  into  sentences,  sayings, 
and  verses."  How  poor  and  insufficient  then  appear  most  sen- 
tences in  the  profoundest  book; — but  how  inexhaustibly  rich 
is  the  Divine  Word  in  its  minutest  sayings  !  And  the  most 
observable  thing  in  this  is  that — apart  from  the  connection  in 
which  the  discourse  proceeds,  a  connection  always  existing 
though  not  always  apparent — so  many  of  the  sayings  of  the 
Bible  are  so  wonderfully  deep  and  pregnant  in  themselves  alone. 
Because  the  weakness  of  man  is  such  that  few  can  apprehend 
the  process,  connection,  and  meaning  of  a  whole  book  or  epistle  ; 
— because,  fiu'ther,  even  the  most  enlightened  of  us  often  need 
to  be  instructed,  exhorted,  and  comforted  by  a  short  and  strik 
ing  word ; — therefore  the  wisdom  of  God  speaks  in  the  sanctu- 
ary by  proverbs,  even  as  the  wisdom  of  the  people  uses  them  in 
the  streets.  He  who  said  of  Himself,  A  greater  than  Solomon 
is  here  !  spake  mostly  in  brief  sayings,  each  of  which  bears  the 
impress  of  unapproachable  simplicity,  while  every  one  of  them 
is  so  mde,  and  deep,  and  far-reaching  as  to  say  almost  all  in 
one  word  that  could  be  said  on  the  matter.  The  same  cha- 
racteristic pervades,  more  or  less,  the  whole  Bible.  Among  the 
most  suggestive  and  pregnant  of  these  sayings  is  that  utterance 
of  St  James  on  which  we  must  linger  a  while — Mercy  rejoiceth 
against  judgment!  In  these  three  words  (the  original  has  no  more) 
this  man  of  God,  filled  with  the  Spirit,  says  very  much  more 
than  a  superficial  exposition  will  find  in  the  obvious  connection. 
Thus,  he  does  not  only  say — He  who  hath  shown  mercy  will 
one  day  be  able  to  stand  with  joy  before  the  claims  of  judgment ! 
But,  in  order  to  lay  the  first  and  deepest  foimdation  for  this,  St 


336  MERCY  REJOICETH  AGAINST  JUDGMENT. 

James  speaks  thus  simply  concerning  mercy  and  judgment  in 
general,  concerning  the  triumph  and  glorying  of  mercy  against 
and  over  judgment.  Let  us  not  rob  this  most  impressive  say- 
ino;  of  its  rights,  hut  consider:  How  this  was  a  great  truth 
from  eternity  in  God^  and  in  God  for  us  ;  how  it  must  become 
a  truth  and  reality  in  ourselves ;  and  how,  finally,  in  the  day  of 
judgment  it  will  hold  good  between  God  and  us.  Thus  under- 
standing it,  we  shall  be  able  to  perceive  that  the  wisdom  of  St 
James  in  this  single  saying  exhibits  to  us  the  whole  mystery  of 
the  atonement,  together  ivith  the  mystery  of  regeneration,  as  the  key 
to  the  true  judgment  of  God  in  the  end  of  the  world. 

He  speaks  simply  and  unconditionally  of  judgment.  He 
means,  undoubtedly,  a  judgment  which  does  not  maintain  its 
right  to  the  glory  of  a  final  victory,  but  is  overcome ;  yet  he 
speaks  not  of  a  false  judgment,  but  of  that  true  judgment  which 
should  ever  maintain  its  rights,  and  be  victorious  :  —  hence  is 
the  glorying  over  it  so  great  and  marvellous  a  thing !  When 
we  hear  of  judgment,  we  think  of  being  right  or  being  wrong 
before  Him  who  judgeth.  And  what  man  is  there  who  can 
sustain  his  righteousness  before  God,  the  Judge  of  all  the  world  '^ 
What  son  of  Adam  has  not  fallen  under  the  condenniing  sen- 
tence of  supreme  and  holy  justice  ?  We  are  altogether  sinners  : 
there  is  no  distinction,  no  glorying  of  any  one  mortal ;  we  must 
all  stop  our  mouths,  instead  of  rejoicing  against  justice.  The 
voice  of  conscience  in  every  sincere  soul  bears  witness  for  God 
that  death  is  deserved ;  he  who  approaches  the  throne  of  the  King 
of  kings  must,  like  Mephibosheth  before  David,  think  only  of 
mercy,  and  confess- — What  right  have  I  yet,  or  to  cry  any  more 
unto  the  king?  (2  Sam.  xix.  28).  And  although  there  is,  other- 
wise viewed,  a  relation  of  worse  and  worst  among  sinners ;  yet 
this  distinction  vanishes  again,  in  as  far  as  the  least  sinner  is 
guilty  enough  for  full  and  final  condemnation.  The  whole 
world  has  fallen  imder  the  righteous  judgment  of  God.  It 
must  consequently  be  condemned — if  the  living  God  Himself 
were  only  a  rigid  and  inflexible  Righteousness,  a  dead  lav)  (or 
"  moral  absolute  Ruler  of  the  universe,"  as  the  fashion  is  to 
speak),  the  firm,  inviolable  oight  of  Avhich  knew  nothing  of 
mercy.  But  He  is  the  Lawgiver ;  and  the  question  is  not  so 
much  that  it  is  said,  Thou  shalt  not  do  this  or  that !  as  of  Hhn 
loho  hath  said  it !     This  supreme  Lawgiver  can,  like  every  one 


JAMES  II.  13.  337 

of  His  feeble  representatives  upon  earth,  condemn  in  Plis 
supreniest  right ;  but  He  can  also  acquit,  forgive,  and  save 
(Jas.  iv.  12).  He  gave  the  commandment  of  His  holy  love, 
as  it  was  founded  from  eternity  in  His  nature  and  will,  to  us 
sinners  who  have  broken  it,  and  can  never  again  of  our  own 
power  keep  it.  He  knows  well  that  it  condemns  us  :  not,  how- 
ever, to  condemn  us  has  He  given  it,  implanted  it  in  our  minds, 
and  written  it  down ;  but  rather  that  it  may  convince  us  of  our 
guilt,  in  order  to  our  being  absolved.  This  is  a  first  judgment 
of  God  upon  us  ;  but  it  is  not  abiding,  and  not  the  last.  The  sin- 
ful man  must  once  come  into  the  righteous  judgment  before  the 
face  of  the  Holy  One  ;  eveiy  sin  must,  with  its  guilt,  be  placed 
once  in  the  light  of  eternal  justice  :  this  is  not  relaxed  in  the  case 
of  any  sinner  soever,  and  this  is  the  contention  and  anger  of  God 
with  us.  But  that  God  will  not  contend  always,  nor  keep  His 
wrath  for  evermore.  Far  be  it  from  us  to  say,  that  this  He 
must  do  under  the  compulsion  of  His  mere  justice !  He  is  a 
living  and  free  God ;  a  God  who  communicates  all  His  good, 
even  the  most  communicable  good  in  His  most  essential  being : 
— for  He  is  and  must  ever  be  love,  from  the  time  that  in  love 
He  first  created  a  world  out  of  Himself,  to  the  time  when  He 
decreed  to  save  a  world  that  was  lost.  May  we  form  to  oiu- 
selves  the  notion  of  a  dead  (abstract)  essence,  instead  of  this 
living  God,  and  say — God  is  infinity,  or  eternity?  Assuredly 
not !  we  may  not  even  say — for  the  Scripture  never  says — God 
is  omnipotence.  "  Behold,  God  is  mighty,  yet  despiseth  not 
any:  for  He  is  mighty  in  strength  of  hearf^ — as  Elihu  as 
humanly  as  profoundly  tells  us  (Job  xxx\'i.  5).  Or,  is  it  any- 
where ^\Titten,  God  is  righteousness,  or  justice  ?  But  God  is 
love  !  Even  in  God  Himself,  to  speak  as  men,  love  is  the 
greatest  of  all  the  perfections,  the  bond  of  perfection,  apart 
from  which  the  attributes  of  the  perfect  God  would  not  be  per- 
fect for  themselves  alone.  Therefore  speaketh  the  Son  of  the 
Father — God  so  loved,  yea,  from  eternity  loved,  the  sinful  world, 
in  its  guilt  and  doom !  He  sent  His  Son  into  the  world,  and 
gave  Him  up  for  the  world,  not  that  He  might  condemn  the 
world,  but  that  no  man  should  perish  !  The  love,  Avhich  cannot, 
and  will  not  be  lost,  is  mercy  :  thus  in  God  Himself  mercy  re- 
joiceth  against  judgment ;  thus  in  His  nature  and  will  saving 
love  victoriously  triumphs  over  condemning  judgment. 


338  MERCY  REJOICETH  AGAINST  JUDGMENT. 

But  it  must  be  understood  that  this  Divine  mercy  is  not 
unrif^hteous  ;  it  is  not  an  arbitrary  abolition  of  eternal  justice. 
Eighteousness  and  judgment  are  the  firm  immoveable  founda- 
tion of  His  throne  ;  to  maintain  this  right,  to  retrieve  it  where 
it  has  been  even  relaxed  by  Himself,  grace  and  truth,  and  good- 
ness and  faithfulness,  go  before  His  face,  as  it  were,  as  the 
ministers  of  His  wonderful  government  (Ps.  Ixxxix.  15).  On 
that  very  account  God  cannot  in  His  mercy  remit  anything  of  His 
right ;  He  cannot  therefore  regard  the  sin  and  leave  it  remain- 
ing, because  no  sinner  can  be  saved  in  his  sin.  Therefore, 
further,  He  cannot  take  away  the  sin  by  arbitrary  power,  be- 
cause the  sinner  is  a  creature  free.  Thus,  in  order  to  salvation, 
there  is  a  merciful  and  gracious  judgment.  Against  this, 
indeed,  the  devil  protests,  who  in  his  own  guilt  and  character 
can  experience  and  endm-e  only  justice,  who  is  therefore  the 
representative  and  advocate  of  wrath,  the  accuser  with  the 
deadly  words — Let  right  be  done,  and  perish  the  world  !  (Fiat 
justitia  et  pereat  mundus.)  That  righteousness  cannot  be  retained 
and  honoured,  if  it  be  accomplished  in  mercy  !  "  For  the  Lord 
is  righteous  in  all  His  ways,  and  holy  in  all  His  works"  (Ps. 
cxlv.  17).  "  Zion  must  be  redeemed  with  judgment,  and  her 
converts  with  righteousness"  (Is.  i.  27).  We  shall  not  develop 
this  any  further ;  but  simply  indicate  how  the  sentence  of  St 
James,  concerning  the  mercy  which  itself  according  to  justice 
retains  wondroiisly  its  rights  over  judgment  (for  else  there  would 
be  no  real  glorying  /),  penetrates  deep  into  the  mystery  of  the 
atonement.  We  know,  as  Christians,  how  all  the  tender  mercy 
and  loving-kindness  which  have  been  ever  of  old  laid  up  for  sin- 
ful men  (Ps.  xxv,  6),  has  revealed  itself  in  its  sacred  foundation 
of  justice  through  the  cross  of  Christ.  The  whole  world  was 
ripe  for  judgment ;  but  instead  of  the  judgment  came  the  Re- 
deemer, and  entered  for  the  world's  sake  into  a  judgment  the 
issue  of  which  was  the  victory  of  mercy  ;  and  this  was  the  glory 
of  the  Bighteous  Father.  Now  God  is  just,  and  yet  the  justifier 
of  him  that  belie veth  in  Jesus  (Rom.  iii.  26).  Thus  for  every 
one  of  us  mercy  rejoiceth  against  judgment,  when  we  are 
justified  and  acquitted. 

But,  after  the  first  forgiveness,  mercy  is  implanted  in  us  alsoy 
and  thus  in  deed  and  trath  exhibits  this  rejoicing.  It  is  not 
merely  needful  that  we  receive  forgiving  grace  ;  we  must  have 


JAMES  II.  13.  339 

faith  in  Him  who  maketh  the  ungodly  just  (Rom.  iv.  5) — so 
that  the  justifying  word  may  be  also  a  justifying  deed,  an 
actual  making  just.  How  could  we  be  happy  or  saved,  if  sin 
should  remain  ?  How  could  the  righteous  Father  leave  sin  in 
His  children  ?  "Where  would  then  be  the  righteousness  in 
mercy ;  and  whence  would  come  the  peace  of  reconciliation  in 
the  conscience  ?  He  who  can  still  say — ^I  will  sin,  I  will  con- 
tinue in  sin !  cannot  rejoice  even  in  repentance,  much  less  in 
ha^dng  faith  in  a  grace  which  has  been  received  :  he  has  not 
yet  penetrated  through  judgment  to  love.  In  this  consists  and 
is  demonstrated  the  wonder  of  our  redemption,  that  with  the 
guilt  the  sin  itself  is  taken  away.  But  sin  is  the  unrighteousness, 
the  opposition  to  the  law  (1  John  iii.  4),  the  contradiction  to 
the  Divine  law  of  love.  It  is  selfishness,  which  despises  the 
neighbour,  and  in  him  the  common  Creator  and  God  of  mercy ; 
it  is  godless  pride,  which  sets  the  I  upon  the  throne  ;  murderous 
hatred,  which  will  not  abide  the  rights  of  others  beside  self  ;  the 
■^^Tetched  wrath  without  love,  which  worketh  not  the  righteous- 
ness of  God.  God  is  love,  and  he  that  dwelleth  in  love  dwelleth 
in  God,  and  God  in  him  (1  John  iv.  16).  We  have  not  all 
abode  in  love  ;  therefore  from  the  heart  and  bosom  of  God,  love, 
as  showing  mercy,  comes  anew  to  us,  that  it  may  enter  into  us,  and 
re-establish  itself  in  us  through  the  abounding  triumph  of  mercy 
against  judgment.  He  who  apprehends  and  experiences  this, 
loves  Him  who  first  loved  himself,  and  in  Him  loves  his  brethren 
also.  This  is  the  renewed  law  in  Christ ;  no  longer  as  a  dead, 
condemning  Thou  shalt !  but  as  a  new  life,  as  spirit  and  power 
from  God.  See  therefore  how  profoundly  and  simply  St  James 
utters  the  mystery  of  regeneration  in  the  word  which  has  now 
become  the  rule  of  our  life,  the  impulse  and  thought  of  our 
heart — Mercy  rejoiceth  against  judgment !  He  who,  through 
love  by  himself  received,  can  love  again,  is  bom  of  God.  God 
judges  not,  and  has  not  condemned  us  ;  so  we  also  condemn  not, 
and  thus  secure  the  continuance  of  our  own  not  being  con- 
demned. Only  if  we  forgive  as  we  have  been  forgiven,  does 
our  forgiveness  abide  a  reality.  He  has  shown  mercy  to  us, 
that  we  may  show  mercy  even  as  He  has  ;  and  only  thus  does 
mercy  maintain  its  triumph  against  judgment :  thus  is  the 
law  fulfilled  in  us  with  all  its  requirements,  while  it  must  with- 
draw Its  curse.      "  Finally,  be  ye  all  of  one  mind,  having  com- 


340  MERCY  REJOICETH  AGAINST  JUDGMENT. 

passion  one  of  another;  love  as  brethren,  be  pitiful,  be  courteous ! 
(1  Pet.  iii.  8) ;  and  that  not  merely  the  saints,  and  brethren 
among  themselves  ;  but  there  must  be  a  universal  love  for  the 
whole  world !  How  could  I  ever  have  entered  among  those 
brethren,  if  the  love  of  God  had  not  fallen  upon  me  while  I 
was  still  in  the  world  ?  As  in  St  James'  time  the  assembly  of 
Christians  was  open  to  Jews  and  Gentiles  alike,  so  is  the  mercy 
of  God  free  for  all  sinners.  Therefore  make  no  wicked  dis- 
tinction, beloved  brethren  !  Even  the  rich,  who  still  exercise 
violence  upon  us,  and  draw  us  before  the  judgment-seats,  we 
are  not,  on  our  part,  to  judge  with  a  judgment  of  evil  thoughts 
against  the  thoughts  of  God  !  The  blinded  Jews  imagined  that 
their  Messiah  must  necessarily  condemn  the  world  without : 
false  Christians,  who  would  similarly  arrogate  all  the  grace  of 
Christ  to  themselves,  act  very  much  in  the  same  manner  in 
their  condemnation  of  unbelievers.  The  true  children  of  God 
through  Christ  act  not  thus  !  They  know  indeed  that  there  is 
a  world,  the  ungodliness  of  which  they  renounce,  and  from  which 
it  is  their  diligent  endeavour  to  keep  themselves  unspotted — 
but  they  love  the  world  which  hates  them,  even  as  God  loves  it. 
Their  motto,  in  all  cases  when  others  would  condemn  and  with- 
hold all  expression  of  compassion,  is  still  —  Mercy  rejoiceth 
against  judgment !  Saving,  communicating,  forgiving  lo"ve 
goes  before  and  gets  the  victory  !  That  abolishes  every  distinc- 
tion of  every  kind,  and  all  respect  of  persons  :  it  knows  not 
stranger  or  brother,  enemy  or  friend ;  it  never  stands  upon 
absolute  justice,  but  takes  precedence  in  its  might  of  love.  We 
should  desire  to  be  no  more  than  vessels  of  God's  mercy,  which 
do  not  reserve  in  themselves  that  mercy  as  their  own  spoil,  but 
impart  it  everywhere  for  its  greater  glory  in  its  fruits.  Thus 
only  do  we  love  in  word  and  act,  in  deed  and  truth.  Upon 
him  who  hath  not  practised  mercy,  judgment  without  mercy  will 
in  righteous  retribution  return  ;  that  which  he  had  escaped  will 
fall  back  upon  him  again,  because  he  did  not  retain  mercy  in 
his  heart.  We  indeed  loo  often  overlook  the  time  and  opportu- 
nity of  exercising  charity,  through  the  fault  of  our  heai't,  which 
is  not  vigilant  enough  in  love  ;  we  even  leave  undone  many  good 
things  which  we  know  to  be  our  duty,  and  that  is  still  greater 
sin  ;  sometimes,  finally,  it  may  be  that  we  do  our  neighbom*  evil 
through  the  remains  of  the  evil  heart.     But  when  these  sins 


JAMES  II.  13.  -341 

against  love  are  the  bitter  grief  of  our  regenerate  souls,  and  we 
place  the  whole  trust  of  our  guilty  souls  in  His  mercy,  stedf  astly 
striving  to  become  merciful  even  as  He  is  merciful, — then  does 
His  voice  cry  against  His  condemnation  in  our  forgiven  con- 
sciences, Mercy  rejoiceth  against  judgment !  and  by  that  same 
law  of  liberty,  which  in  its  deepest  principle  knows  only  of  love, 
shall  we  be  finally  judged  in  the  last  great  day  of  judgment. 

There  remaineth  such  a  judgment  even  for  the  pardoned, — 
a  great  and  final  decisive  day  of  judgment !  But  mercy  itself 
will  judge.  Jesus  Christ,  the  sympathising  High  Priest,  the 
Son  of  ^lan,  sitteth  upon  the  throne.  Verily  He  will  be  to  His 
redeemed  a  merciful  Judge ;  and,  because  the  righteous  Father, 
the  Lawgiver,  hath  given  all  judgment  into  His  hands,  He  will 
bestow  salvation  on  all  on  whom  He  can  bestow  salvation. 
Should  the  justice  of  God,  after  having  sunk  in  mercy,  rise 
again  in  all  its  stern  severity  of  justice ;  should  it  return  back 
in  its  dealing  with  us  to  the  standard  of  law — then  verily  would 
the  Lord  find,  even  in  His  saints,  enough  to  blame,  and  not  one 
of  them  would  stand  before  Him  !  Therefore  St  James  carefully 
abstains  from  saving.  The  merciful  man  rejoiceth  against — as  if 
such  a  thing  might  ever  have  been  said  of  a  sinful  creature  ! 
God  alone  Himself  is  and  abides  the  Mercifid,  even  in  judgment. 
But  on  that  account  He  will  acquit  and  not  condemn  all,  whom 
He  admits  to  mercy,  and  has  exercised  in  His  grace,  and  puri- 
fied and  confirmed  by  trials  ;  He  will  with  the  same  compassion 
take  away  the  last  guilt,  repair  the  last  fault,  and  of  His  final 
and  perfect  grace  bestow  the  crown — on  those  who  love  Him! 
and  who  therefore  loved  their  brethren  also  !  Where  love  finds 
its  own  image  re-established,  wdiere  the  mercy  of  God  in  the 
deep  ground  of  man's  heart  meets  mercy,  there  the  Divine  com- 
passion abolishes,  as  its  final  triumph,  every  the  last  failure  and 
spot  of  the  human  spirit ;  so  that  judgment  remains  finally  over- 
come. Only  he  who  in  his  whole  life  never  showed  true  mercy, 
because  the  ground  of  his  heart  could  not  be  seized  by  the  love 
of  God,  is  the  man  whom  God  cannot  save.  Love  demands  the 
fruit  of  love — the  same  love  which  sowed  pure  love  in  time — 
and  that  is  the  mystery  of  the  last  day.  This  jiadgment,  on  the 
right  hand  superabundantly  merciful,  on  the  left  all  the  more  fear- 
fully unmerciful,  will  proceed  without  respect  of  persons,  or  will 
look  upon  the  right  person  in  the  fullest  sense  of  that  word :  no 


342  FAITH  WITHOUT  WORKS. 

sins  will  be  regarded  then  which  were  not  retained  by  the  true 
person  of  the  inner  man ;  there  will  avail  no  faith  of  the  mere 
lips,  of  mere  knowledge,  or  of  imagination,  no  chui'ch,  no  dog- 
matics ;  then  the  Samaritan  will  confront  the  priest  and  the 
Le\dte,  and  the  mercy  which  he  exercised  will  give  evidence 
for  him ;  then,  as  Matt.  xxv.  assm'es  us,  many  who  may  never 
have  known  the  person  or  name  of  Jesus  will  have  their  deeds 
of  mercy  called  to  remembrance.  Thus  both  in  the  beginning 
and  at  the  end  His  words  are,  "  Blessed  are  the  merciful,  for 
they  shall" — note  well,  ye  who  would  pervert  the  sacred  saying, 
in  favour  of  your  fancied  proud  "  benevolence" —  "  they  shall," 
not  be  deservedly  rewarded  according  to  strict  right,  but  assur- 
edly for  then'  mercy's  sake,  "  obtain  mercy." 


XVI. 

FAITH  WITHOUT  WORKS. 

(Ch.  ii.  14-19.) 

What  doth  it  profit,  my  bretliren,  though  a  man  say  he  hath  faith,  and  have 
not  works  ?  can  faith  save  him  ?  If  a  brother  or  a  sister  be  naked,  and 
destitute  of  daily  food,  and  one  of  you  say  unto  them,  Depart  in  peace, 
be  ye  warmed  and  filled  ;  notwithstanding  ye  give  them  not  those  things 
which  be  needful  to  the  body ;  what  doth  it  profit  ?  Even  so  faith,  if  it 
hath  not  works,  is  dead,  being  alone.  But  a  man  may  say,  Thou  hast 
faith  and  I  have  works :  show  me  thy  faith  without  thy  works,  and  I 
will  show  thee  my  faith  with  my  works.  Thou  believest  that  there  is 
one  God  ;  thou  doest  well :  the  devils  also  beheve  and  tremble. 

How  much  controversy  and  contention  there  is  in  the  world 
— in  the  world  indeed — thi'ough  manifold  opinions  and  manifold 
sayijigs  concerning  all  kinds  of  things  !  Not  even  about  their 
own  things  can  the  world  agi'ee,  and  how  should  they  mider- 
stand  Divine  truth  ?  But  even  in  Christendom  and  among 
Christians,  how  many  contentions  there  are  about  this  same 
Divine  truth !  Not  merely  among  chm'ches  and  confessions  ; 
in  every  evangelical  congregation,  often  among  the  smallest  so- 
cieties of  brethren,  many  are  the  forms  and  fashions  of  speaking 
and  of  acting,  of  doctrine  and  of  life  :  opinions,  systems,  watch- 
words for  the  truth,  which  is  but  one,  of  the  most  different 


JAMES  II.  14-19.  343 

sound !  This  is  an  evil  which  extends  very  far  among  those 
that  are  sincere ;  whose  hearts  would  not  err,  and  perhaps  do 
not  really  err,  but  only  speak  of  the  same  thing  in  words  not 
the  same.  He  who  shoidd  stumble  at  this  variety  of  tongues, 
as  if  on  account  of  it  there  could  be  nothing  true  and  certain, 
would  grievously  eiT.  He  who  has  true  wisdom  finds  the  truth 
very  often  on  both  sides  of  an  apparent  contradiction.  Even 
the  truth  of  God,  the  doctrine  of  salvation,  has  often  in  its 
essential  matter  two  opposite  aspects  :  and,  that  being  so,  can 
the  word  concerning  it  be  otherwise  than  two-sided  1  The  word 
properly  takes  its  form  according  to  the  present  position  and 
understanding  of  him  that  speaks ;  and  also  according  to  the 
need  of  the  hearer.  Thus  the  more  truly  and  rightly  believers 
on  both  sides  intend  it,  each  in  his  place,  the  more  different 
obviously  will  be  their  words. 

There  is  scarcely  any  word  in  human  language  for  spiritual 
and  Divine  things,  which  can  be  used  without  any  possibility  of 
misunderstanding ;  therefore,  it  is  no  other  than  an  error  which 
wilfully  clings  to  words  when  the  exhortation  to  speak  the  same 
thing  (1  Cor.  i.  10)  is  itself  misunderstood  and  perverted.  Not 
so  the  Holy  Ghost  in  Scripture,  who  changes  the  voice  and  ex- 
pression as  often  as  it  might  be  expedient  to  do  so ;  in  order 
that,  if  one  sentence  be  wilfully  pressed,  another  may  plead — 
But  this  is  not  the  meaning!  in  order  that,  amid  many  con- 
tradictions and  contrasts,  we  may  find  the  deepest  unity,  and 
be  taught  many-sided  truth  by  everywhere  giving  heed  to  the 
"  Again  it'is  vn-itten ! " 

Thus  is  it  with  one  of  the  most  remarkable  contradictions 
in  Holy  Scripture — which,  however,  is  no  real  contradiction — 
the  twofold  doctrine  concerning  faith  and  works,  as  given  by 
St  Paul  and  St  James.  To  set  it  clearly  before  our  eyes,  we 
must  read  on  at  once  to  ver.  24  of  this  chapter.  "  Ye  see,  then, 
how  that  man  is  justified  by  works,  and  ')iot  by  faith  onlyT 
So  says  St  James,  although  St  Paid  had  said,  "  Therefore,  we 
conclude  that  a  man  is  justified  without  the  works  of  the  law, 
only  hy  jaith "  (Rom.  iii.  28).  And  yet  both  are  perfectly 
right ;  they  are  one  in  the  deepest  principle ;  they  both  speak 
the  truth  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  together  the  whole  truth. 
We  must  here  observe,  at  the  outset,  that  the  Holy  Spirit  has 
avoided  all  extreme  contradiction  in  the  words ;  for  it  is  well 


344  FAITH  WITHOUT  WORKS. 

known  that  Luther  ventured  to  insert  in  tlie  passage  of  the 
Eomans  the  critical,  and  easily-misunderstood  little  word  of 
contention,  "  alone : "  St  Paul  left  that  unsaid,  so  that  St 
James  after  him  ^  might  be  at  full  liberty  to  use  it.  Would 
that  Luther,  however  right  his  intention  might  have  been,  had 
refrained  from  thus  arbitrarily  pointing  the  word  of  God  !  And, 
still  more,  would  that  those  who  have  contended  since  his  time 
for  the  pure  doctrine,  had  submitted  to  the  word  as  it  is  found 
in  St  James,  and  learned  from  it  the  great  danger  w^hich  besets 
a  one-sided  statement  of  the  truth !  An  unhappy  misunder- 
standing and  perversion  of  the  Lutheran  doctrine  of  faith  has 
misled  and  corrupted  the  Church ;  and  it  is  still  reproduced  to 
its  great  injviry.  It  is  against  this  that  St  James  now  bears 
his  testimony ;  a  testimony  so  simple,  and  so  keen,  and  so  clear, 
that  whosoever  receives  his  word,  as  being  also  the  word  of  God, 
must  be  defended  or  redeemed  from  such  an  error. 

What  helps  it,  my  brethren,  if  a  man  saith  he  hath  faith, 
and  t/et  hath  not  works?  Can  that  faith  save  him?  "Already, 
in  this  first  verse,  all  is  made  clear  to  simple  eyes.  Assuredly, 
the  Lord  Christ  everywhere  required  only  faith ;  He  uttered 
His  promises,  healing,  and  grace  only  to  faith;  all  His 
Apostles,  and  St  Paul  especially,  teach  precisely  the  same 
thing.  But  we  also  know  that  Christ  came  not  to  abolish,  but 
to  fulfil  the  law  ;  that  at  the  close  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount, 
and  at  the  close  of  His  teaching  before  the  people.  He  required 
the  doing,  the  fruit,  the  works  for  the  judgment ;  and  that  St 
Paul  does  not  abolish  the  law  by  the  doctrine  of  faith,  but 
establishes  it  (Rom.  iii.  31),  and  speaks  of  every  man  being 
rewarded  in  the  judgment  according  to  his  ico}-l's  !  Thus,  the 
question  here  is  of  a  faith  which  produces  works ;  and  not  of 
faith  alone  in  the  evil  sense,  as  being  a  mere,  a  naked  faith, 
Avorkless  and  unfruitful.  Such  a  "faith"  is,  indeed,  strictly 
speaking,  no  faith  at  all,  only  a  lying  talJdng  about  it,  which  St 
James  then  afterwards,  in  order  to  speak  with  such  people  in 
their  own  langiiage,  terms  a  so-called  believing.  When  St 
Paul  bids  Titus  rebuke  the  false  Christians  in  Crete,  who  dared 
to  be  in  the  church  while,  like  the  rest  of  the  Cretans,  they 

1  Whether  he  wrote  after  St  Paul  in  the  order  of  time,  does  not  affect 
the  question  ;  now,  in  the  plan  of  Holy  Scripture^  his  Epistle  is  to  be  read 
after  St  Paul. 


JAMES  II.  14-19.  345 

remained  liars  and  slow  bellies,  in  order  that  they  might  become 
sound  in  the  faith,  he  says  concerning  them — They  say  that 
they  know  God,  but  they  deny  it  in  their  loorks ;  seeing  that 
they  are  an  abomination,  disobedient,  and  to  every  good  work 
reprobate!  (Tit.  i.  12-16).  In  that  he  is  literally  at  one  with 
St  James:  Every  one  saitli  he  hath  faith,  and  yet  hath  not  works! 
Thus  does  he  maintain  that  he  hath  the  power,  but  without  the 
effects  of  that  power? — the  light,  but  without  its  shining? 
— the  tree,  without  its  fruits'? — faith  in  love,  without  that  love 
in  the  heart,  and  becoming  effectual  through  love?  Luther 
has  not  translated  here  quite  literally,  but  the  sense  is  good — 
"  and  have  not  the  works  " — that  is,  the  works  which  necessarily 
belong  to  faith  and  spring  from  it ;  since  faith  without  works, 
to  have  faith  and  yet  not  to  have  works,  is  an  unreality  and 
nothing.  Certainly  it  is  not  meant  that  faith  and  works  must 
coexist  and  be  present  together  as  distinct,  according  to  the 
notion  of  many ;  as  if  man  exercises  faith  in  grace  for  the 
supply  of  what  is  lacldng,  but  must  also,  in  addition  and  concur- 
rently, care  for  good  works,  which  again  might  come  from 
some  other  source  !  For  then  neither  would  express  the  truth 
— neither  faith  nor  works. 

St  James  began  in  ch.  i.  3  with  faith,  requiring  then  that 
men  be  doers  of  the  word,  and  not  merely  hearers.  Again,  in 
ch.  ii.  1,  he  begins  to  ground  all  upon  believing  in  our  Lord  of 
glory ;  and  then  exhorts  to  the  practice  of  mercy  according  to 
the  law  of  liberty.  He  now  meets  the  foolish  objection,  which 
might  evade  the  exiiortation  and  say — Is  it  necessary  and  right 
thus  to  urge  us  to  doing  and  works,  who  already  have  faith, 
and  on  account  of  our  faith  through  grace  are  saved  ?  What 
helps  it,  answers  St  James,  if  your  "  faith"  shows  itself  by  the 
failure  of  works  to  be  an  idle  talking  about  faith  ?  Can  then 
such  a  faith,  as  ye  call  it,  really  save  you?  For,  what  helps  it, 
and  of  what  use  is  it,  what  anywhere  can  avail — uwrd  icithout 
truth  in  loork  ?  He  then  at  once  exhibits  a  striking  example, 
and  takes  it  from  the  love  of  our  neighbour,  in  which  the  folly 
and  vanity  of  a  mere  sa^ang  without  doing  is  most  directly 
apparent.  If  a  brother  or  sister,  to  whom  we  are  bound  to 
show  love^  lacks  clothing  or  daily  bread,  what  kind  of  talking 
about  love  Avould  that  be  which  did  not  feed  and  clothe  the 
naked  and  the  hungry  ?     What  would  that  helj)  ?     Obviously, 


346  FAITH  WITHOUT  WORKS. 

he  supposes  the  case  that  we  ourselves  are  not  in  want  hke  the 
brother  or  sister,  but  that  we  could  give  what  bodily  necessity 
demanded.  Wliat  a  lymg  counterfeit  of  love  if  we  should  only 
say — Be  thou  helped,  we  wish  it  from  our  heart !  Luther  has 
again  translated  Tinliterally — but  in  token  that  he  herfi  under- 
stood the  matter,  and  would  more  sharply  express  the  truth — 
"  Gott  berathe  euch  ! ".  God  provide  for  thee  !  That  would  be 
the  vilest  prostitution  of  the  name  of  God,  under  the  guise  of 
piety ;  the  hypocrite  would  refer  the  poor  to  the  comfort  of  the 
blessed  God,  when  God  had  expressly  referred  them  to  himself 
and  his  charity.  This  may  often  occur,  but  St  James  does  not 
so  strongly  express  it ;  he  makes  the  uncharitable  brother,  who 
will  not  himself  give,  merely  say —  Go  in  peace  I  be  of  good 
cheer,  all  will  be  well,  some  one  mil  help  thee  (but  not  I)  ;  so 
be  warmed  and  be  filled !  But  this,  on  the  other  hand,  makes 
the  mere  saying  all  the  more  foohsh.  By  speaking  and  pro- 
mising, by  wishing  and  consohng-r-Be  warmed  and  filled !  no 
man  can  ever  be  warm  and  full.  Suppose  all  acted  thus  in 
their  sympathising  love !  Assuredly,  thy  assm'ance — I  wish 
thee  well  helped  !  is  a  lie,  if  thou  dost  not  thyself  help  the  poor 
man,  according  to  thy  ability.  Thy  dispatching  him  with  such 
a  Go  in  peace  !  is  a  bitter  and  unmerciful  mockery.  Now  the 
application,  from  love  which  essentially  shows  itself  in  act,  to 
faith  from  which  the  love  of  the  heart  must  proceed : — So  also 
faith,  if  it  have  not  works,  is  dead  in  itself.  In  the  former  case, 
it  was  a  giving  to  others,  here  primarily  a  receiving  for  our- 
selves ;  here  we  are  before  God's  compassion  the  naked  and  the 
hungry,  but  He  clothes  and  fills  our  inner  man  with  righteous- 
ness. What  helps  it,  and  what  does  it  mean,  if  any  man  should 
say  to  God — I  thank  Thee  for  Thy  gift  and  grace !  while  He 
receives  it  not  ?  So  the  faith  which  remains  in  sins,  and  has 
no  good  works.  In  whom  and  in  what  dost  thou  then  believe  ? 
In  God,  in  thy  Lord  and  Saviour,  in  His  word — Thy  sins  are 
forgiven  thee !  Now  the  same  Lord  who  says  that  to  thee, 
gives  in  and  with  that  word  a  new  power  and  a  new  life  unto 
righteousness.  As  little  as  the  repentance  which,  hoping  to  be 
forgiven,  would  continue  in  sin,  is  sincere,  so  little  can  the  faith 
in  forgiveness  be  a  genuine  faith  in  Him  who  utters  it,  if  it 
do  not  embrace  the  words  Avhich  He  always  utters  at  the  same 
time — Sin  no  more !     Tarry  lying  no  longer,  but  rise  up  and 


JAMES  II.  14-19.  34:7 

walk !  In  forgiveness  itself  is  the  re-establishment  into  a  new 
life  contained.  Mere  faith,  without  previous  merit,  justifies  as 
being  a  faith  which  cannot  in  the  future  remain  a  mere  faith. 
If  the  penitent  robber  had  not  died,  he  would  not  have  gone 
and  performed  the  old  deeds.  Thus  the  saying  before  men,  to 
om'selves,  even  to  God,  that  we  have  faith,  but  without  works, 
St  James  rightly  calls  a  dead  believing  ;  that  is,  because  it  is  a 
contradiction  in  itself,  the  mere  semblance  and  delusion  of 
believing,  even  as  the  corpse  is  not  a  living  and  real  man. 
Either  thou  art  yet  dead,  and  so  speaking  about  believing  which 
yet  is  a  Hving ;  or,  thy  faith,  which  was  alive  at  first,  has  died 
again — the  mere  so-called  "believing"  of  itself  alone  remains 
no  better  than  a  corpse.  Who  does  not  see  clearly  that  St 
Paul  and  St  James  here  carry  on  each  his  divine  discourse  in 
the  same  spirit,  and  with  the  same  meaning  ?  To  people  who 
glory  in  the  works  of  the  law  (mark  well  this  word  in  the  say- 
ing to  the  Romans  !)  in  opposition  to  faith,  St  Paul  says — Your 
dead  works  before  and  after  regeneration  avail  and  help  nothing ; 
only  living  faith  creates  the  true  works  !  To  people  who  stand 
stiffly  upon  a  so-called  believing,  St  James  says — Your  dead 
faith,  without  power  and  life,  is  of  no  worth ;  but  the  living 
works  must  come  from  beheving ! 

He  then  goes  on  to  take  another  case  for  further  conviction  ; 
and  sets  against  the  vain  speaker  another  some  one,  and  what 
he  might  have  to  say  on  the  other  hand.  Who  is  this  "  man  " 
in  St  James'  meaning  T  It  has  been  very  incorrectly  supposed 
that  he  intended  a  Christian,  a  genuine  Christian  who  had 
works  as  well  as  faith.  But,  so  taken,  the  entire  saying  of  this 
second  man  to  the  former  is  misunderstood ;  and  we  fail  to  ob- 
serve the  humiliation  through  men  first,  which  is  then  followed 
by  a  humiliation  through  the  devils.  Why  then  should  the 
Christian  brother — contrary  to  the  exercise  of  love — so  hardly 
and  so  mockingly  require  from  the  other  the  showing  of  his 
faith  ?  To  what  end  generally  this  showing,  if  it  is  not  a 
contender  against  faith  who  requires  it?  And  that  this  man 
evidently  is,  for  he  places  himself  in  opposition,  and  says — 
Thou  hast  faith,  and  I  have  works ;  thou  boldest  to  the  "  be- 
lieving," but  I  to  the  works — we  have  our  several  religion  and 
righteousness.  Thus  it  was  at  that  time  a  pharisaical  Jew  opposed 
to  the  Christian  ;  now  it  is  a  moralist  and  man  of  vu*tue,  who, 


348  FAITH  WITHOUT  WORKS. 

with  his  good  works,  thinks  he  needs  not  to  heheve  in  the  grace 
of  Christ  Jesus.  Now,  the  confessor  of  the  name  of  Christ 
would  convert  such  a  man  to  his  oivn  "believing:"  how  will 
that  be  possible,  if  he  is  a  mere  champion  of  faith  with  the  lips? 
The  man  of  works  justly  mocks  him,  and  demands  demonstra- 
tion which  should  put  to  shame  his  oion  "  works."  "  Am  I  to 
yield  to  thee  ?  Shoio  me  thy  faith  !  Prove  to  me  that  it  is 
something,  and  more  than  what  I  have!"  Here  it  is  to  be 
lamented  that  the  German  Bible  has  not  exhibited  the  only 
right  reading — "Show  me  thy  faith  without  thy  works!" 
Without  the  works — that  is  in  the  doctrine  of  the  Apostle  Paul 
the  keenest  expression ;  it  is  this  which  is  so  sadly  misused 
in  a  dead  faith ;  as  if  the  addition  could  be  intended  for  the 
faith,  instead  of  being  connected  with  the  justification  (without 
reference  to  the  merit  of  works).  The  ironical  record  hits  the 
point  well,  "  Show  me  any  kind  of  faith  which  is  a  power  and 
feeling  of  the  heart ;  show  me  thy  faith  icithout  works — if  such 
a  thing  be  possible  !  I  cannot  penetrate  thy  heart;  words  in 
this  matter  are  of  no  avail ;  without  thy  works  I  know  notliing 
of  thy  faith ! "  Is  not  this,  brethren,  taken  from  the  life  for 
ourselves  in  our  own  day  1  We  ought  to  let  the  light  of  our 
faith  shine  before  the  world,  especially  before  the  self-righteous ; 
and  shoiv  them  the  power  of  God  within  us — but  how  otherwise 
than  in  the  works  and  fruits  of  our  faith  ?  If  I  have  them  not, 
I  am  mocked  of  him  whom  I  ought  to  overcome  and  convince  ; 
by  my  vain  talk  he  is  offended  and  strengthened  in  his  delusion, 
so  that  through  me  the  name  of  the  Lord  may  by  him  be 
blasphemed.  "  Thou  sayest,  I  believe  !  My  symbol  runs  much 
better — I  do  !  There  I  am  thy  master:  what  thou  canst  not,  I 
can ;  but  I  am  not  bound  first  to  bring  demonstration  to  such  a 
fool  as  thou  art.  First  make  thou  that  nothing  possible,  to 
show  me  thy  faith  without  works  ;  then  (so  he  goes  on  to 
mock)  will  I  also  show  thee  my  '  faith,'  that  is,  my  religion, 
my  heart's  disposition  before  God  and  relation  to  Him  ;  and  I 
will  indeed,  by  my  works,  prove  to  thee  that  my  faith,  which 
has  works  (although  thou  condemnest  it  as  unbelief),  is  the  riglit 
faith,  better  than  thine,  and  is  the  true  religion,  because  effec- 
tual in  the  life!"  Observe,  that  the  opponent  is  not  such  a 
fool  as  to  be  ignorant  that  works  come  from  the  heart,  and  have 
their  foundation  or  source  in  the  heart's  faith.      Assuredlv, 


JAMES  II.  H-10.  349 

right  doing  comes  only  from  right  believing ;  but  it  is  that 
which  ive  should  show  to  them,  as  our  righteousness  of  life 
must  exceed  that  of  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees.  If  we  cannot, 
our  vain  boasting  of  faith  must,  to  the  dishonom-  of  God,  strike 
its  sails  before  the  honourable  natural  man. 

And  even  the  example  of  the  devils  convinces  and  con- 
demns us :  that  is  the  sudden  and  striking  progression  in  St 
James'  argument  "Thou  believest  that  there  is  one  God; 
thou  doest  well :  the  devils  believe  that,  and  tremble."  A 
fearfully  telling  expression ;  and  yet  the  pm'e  truth  as  it 
respects  this  perverted  use  of  the  word  believing,  which  the 
Apostle  by  adopting  would  utterly  overthrow.  He  thereby 
exhibits  a  faith  in  the  Lord,  which  only  knows  and  holds 
firmly  that  this  Lord  exists,  without  receiving  anything  from 
Him,  without  really  receiving  from  Him  the  gift  of  grace. 
Here  St  James  goes  back  in  his  example  from  the  second 
article  (as  our  Catechism  says)  to  the  first.  For  it  is  with 
believing  in  Jesus  as  it  is  with  believing  in  God ;  rather,  in  the 
former  the  true  faith  in  God  finds  its  consummation. 

The  merely  being  convinced  of  the  beiiig  of  God,  the  one 
God  in  opposition  to  the  gods — on  which  many  a  believiiig 
Pharisee  without  ivorks  prided  himself,  and  which  therefore  was 
included  by  St  James — is  of  no  avail  at  all !  That  all  sinners 
know  or  believe  in  their  secret  hearts  ;  even  the  fools  who 
Avould  say  if  they  could — Let  there  be  no  God !  Even  the 
devils  cannot  deny  it.  They  even  believe  it,  and  are  not 
thereby  saA'ed  !  St  James,  however,  would  say  more  than  this, 
and  intimate  further — The  devils  also  know  that  there  is  a  Son 
of  God,  a  Saviour  of  men ;  they  know  Jesus  well ;  they  knew 
the  "  Holy  One  of  God"  better  and  sooner  than  men  did — as 
we  read  in  St  ISIark's  Gospel.  Had  they  on  that  account 
salvation  from  Him  ?  No  more  than  thou,  who  magnifiest  the 
Saviour,  but  wilt  not  be  saved  by  Him  ;  thy  faith  knowing  only 
to  say  —  Thou  art  my  Saviour !  Be  not  deluded  by  Satan, 
who,  when  he  cannot  thwart  the  truth  that  there  is  a  Christ, 
persuades  people  that  it  is  saving  faith  to  know  and  believe  as 
he  and  his  devils  know  and  believe  !  O  how  utterly  vain  will 
thy  faith  then  be  !  Yet  not  only  utterly  in  vain.  For  know 
that  the  devils  believe  that  God  is  (and  that  His  Son  is) — and 
tremble.     Thou,  indeed,  if  thou  didst  believe  in  Jesus  Christ  in 


350  FAITH  WITHOUT  WORKS.  ' 

such  wise  as  to  receive  His  grace  for  thyself,  shouldst  love  Him, 
and  joyfully  serve  and  obey  Him.  Art  thou  without  that,  and 
moreover  without  any  trembling  fear  of  the  judgment  of  the 
Lord — and  thus  worse  than  the  devils,  whose  faith  works  some- 
thing in  them  at  least,  the  spirit  of  fear? — That  certainly  St 
James  did  not  mean  to  say ;  for  no  man  can  be  worse  than  the 
devils.  But  this  he  Avould  say — There  is  in  thy  dead,  power- 
less, and  uninfluential  believing  a  frightful  self-deception,  which 
alone  could  render  it  possible  for  thee  to  name  the  name  of 
Christ  without  declining  from  unrighteousness,  and  without  fear- 
ing the  final  judgment.  Woe  to  thee,  when  at  last  this  self- 
deception  is  decided ; — what  trembling  with  the  devils,  when  the 
righteous  Judge,  who  knows  of  no  faith  without  works,  shall 
require,  in  awful  earnest  and  without  any  mockery,  as  it  is  here 
j)redicted — Show  Me  thy  faith  with  thy  works  I  Then  will  thy 
so-called  faith,  thy  saying  thou  hast  faith,  not  save  thee,  but  be 
thy  condemnation.  Thou  wast  no  devil,  but  a  man  who  might 
have  been,  and  should  have  been,  renewed  by  love  unto  the 
return  of  love  ;  but  though  thou  knewest,  thou  wouldst  not,  and 
that  is  thy  condemnation  with  the  devils. 

But  no  more  now  on  this  subject.  We  only  ask  in  conclu- 
sion :  Wherefore  was  this  set  before  those  who  by  the  grace 
of  God  maintained  their  faith,  without  this  deadness  of  heart  ? 
In  order  that  they  might  take  the  Avarning  not  to  lose  their 
grace ;  that  they  might  most  diligently  guard  themselves  in 
individual  and  lesser  matters  against  all  words  unaccompanied 
by  works,  all  imaginations  without  truth  and  power.  Similarly, 
that  we  might  all  receive  the  exhortation  against  a  stiff,  one- 
sided standing  upon  words,  as  if  the  truth  of  salvation  must  be 
for  all  occasions  and  times  embraced  in  the  same  formulas  and 
kinds  of  speech.  Let  us  leave  room  for  the  so-called  legalists, 
and  for  those  who  are  more  free ;  provided  the  legalists  mean 
the  law  of  liberty,  and  the  free  are  not  unto  God  without  the 
law  of  Christ !  Let  eveiy  man  be  more  and  more  persuaded  in 
his  own  mind.  Let  us  tolerate  the  anxious,  who  speak  only  of 
their  weakness  and  guilt,  and  the  joyful,  who  dance  under  the 
impiilse  of  their  sanctified  confession — if  only  each  has  received 
from  above  the  measure  of  his  strength  and  truth.  It  is  no 
contradiction,  that  the  one  has  faith  with  works,  and  the  other 
works  from  faith ;  let  each  learn  from  the  other,  that  he  may 


JAMES  II.  20-26.  351 

not  forget  what  is  essential  to  one  and  the  other.  May  tlie 
Spirit  of  truth  guard  us  all  against  false  self-contentment,  either 
in  faith  without  the  works,  or  in  works  without  faith — from 
both  of  which  the  doctrine  of  St  James  is  equally  far  removed  ! 


xvn. 

THE  WORKS  OF  ABRAHAM'S  AND  RAHAB's  FAITH. 

(Ch.  ii.  20-26.) 

But  Tvilt  thou  know,  0  vain  man,  tliat  faith  without  works  is  dead?  Was 
not  Abraham  ovx  father  justified  by  works,  when  he  had  offered  Isaac 
his  son  upon  the  altar  ?  Thou  seest  how  faith  wrought  -with  his  works, 
and  by  works  was  faith  made  perfect.  And  the  Scripture  was  fulfilled 
which  saith,  Abraham  beheved  God,  and  it  was  imputed"  imto  him  for 
righteousness ;  and  he  was  called  the  Friend  of  God.  Ye  see  then  how 
that  by  works  a  man  is  justified,  and  not  by  faith  only.  Likewise  also, 
was  not  Rahab  the  harlot  justified  by  works,  when  she  had  received  the 
messengers,  and  sent  them  out  another  way?  For  as  the  body  without 
the  spirit  is  dead,  so  faith  without  works  is  dead  also. 

Once  more,  and  for  the  third  time,  St  James  utters  the 
great  declaration — that  faith  loithout  xoorks  is  dead!  And  why 
should  not  this  be  received  as  the  fullest,  clearest  truth  ?  The 
whole  of  Scripture  agrees  with  him  ;  for  that  faith  which  it  re- 
quires and  commends,  to  w^hich  it  attributes  righteousness  and 
salvation,  is  a  living,  real,  influential,  fruitful  faith.  Luther 
meant  no  other  than  this,  though,  on  account  of  the  good  and 
well-intended  word  of  his  system  "faith  alone,^^  he  could  not 
relish  the  doctrine  of  the  Epistle  of  St  James.  He  himself 
speaks,  in  his  preface  to  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  precisely  as 
St  James  speaks  in  our  text.  "  O  it  is  a  living,  quick,  mighty 
thing  this  faith  ;  so  that  it  is  impossible  but  that  it  should  do 
all  good  things  without  intermission.  It  does  not  ask  whether 
good  works  are  to  be  done,  but  before  the  question  could  be 
asked  it  does  them,  and  is  always  doing  them.  He  w^ho  does 
not  these  good  works  is  a  man  without  faith  :  he  is  looking 
about  him  for  faith  and  good  works,  but  knows  neither  the  one 
nor  the  other — all  his  words  about  them  are  idle  babbling. 


352         THE  WORKS  OF  ABRAHAM'S  AND  EAHAB's  FAITH. 

Faith  is  a  living  confidence  in  the  grace  of  God,  so  confident 
that  it  would  die  a  thousand  deaths  in  reliance  on  it.  And  this 
confidence  and  knowledge  of  the  m-ace  of  God  maketh  the  heart 
merry  and  alert  towards  God  and  all  His  creatures.  Hence 
man  is  free  without  force  to  do  what  is  right,  to  serve  every  one, 
to  bear  all  sufferings,  out  of  love  to  God,  and  in  His  praise  who 
hath  shown  him  such  grace  :  yea,  it  is  impossible  to  separate 
works  from  faith,  as  impossible  as  to  separate  burning  and  shin- 
ing from  fire." 

St  James  has  already  shown  that  the  speaking  of  believing, 
without  the  power  and  demonstration  of  works,  is  only  a  mask 
and  a  lie  ;  he  has  shown  it  from  the  nature  of  the  case  itself,  as 
illustrated  by  the  similitude  of  love,  by  the  mocking  rejoinder  of 
the  other  man  who  had  works,  by  the  trembling  and  useless  faith 
of  the  devils.  Nevertheless,  as  if  he  had  not  demonstrated  it  as 
yet,  he  proceeds  again,  "  But  wilt  thou  know,  O  vain  man,  that 
faith  without  works  is  dead?"  Thou  vain  man  ;  that  is,  thou 
faitldess  man,  as  Luther  says,  thou  empty  man,  puffed  up  by 
vainglorying,  without  the  truth  and  power  of  faith  in  the  heart, 
whose  words  are  nothing,  but  come  from  an  empty  and  hollow 
soul.  Wilt  thou  not  know  and  acknowledge  what  I  have  said  ? 
Or,  rather,  must  thou  not  see  its  truth,  when  it  is  really  so  with 
thee  and  thy  dead  faith  ?  Thou  wilt  not  surely  deceive  thyself 
in  the  matter  of  thy  salvation  ?  This  is  the  question  which  I 
m*ge — Wilt  thou  ?  For  he  who  will  not  cannot  be  convinced ; 
even  though  the  truth  is  as  near  to  him  as  his  own  heart.  O 
reader,  art  thou  still  such  a  vain  man — then  yield  up  thy  will 
now  first  to  know  the  truth,  which  may  point  thee  from  thy 
Nothing  to  the  Something  that  truly  avails  !  Art  thou  by  the 
grace  of  God  no  longer  such  —  then  learn  from  St  James 
how  thy  faith  may  be  continually  strengthened,  and  how  thou 
must  speak  to  the  vain  men  whom  thou  woiddst  bring  to  true 
knowledge. 

Out  of  Holy  Scripture,  from  its  history  and  examples,  St 
James  takes  the  strongest  argument,  Avliich  he  had  reserved  for 
the  last.  But  will  a  vain  man  be  likely  to  be  more  effectually 
convinced  by  Scripture,  after  he  has  rejected  what  went  before  ? 
One  might  think  it  would  not  be  fo  ;  but  St  James  knew  better 
the  power  of  the  letter  of  Scriptm-e  even  over  such  people. 
And  it  is  remarkable  that  so  it  is  !     Great  is  the  force  of  every 


JAMES  II.  20-26.  353 

word  given  of  God !  As  the  proud  Jews  in  those  days  still 
hung  upon  their  Bible,  and  were  to  be  laid  hold  of  by  its  con- 
viction, so  also  are  all  vain  Christians  of  that  time  and  of  this, 
who  wrongly  glory  in  their  faith  as  the  Pharisees  did  in  their 
works.  Their  argument  about  faith,  they  take  from  the  Scrip- 
tui'e  which  speaks  of  the  righteousness  of  faith.  Indeed, 
they  misunderstand  and  pervert  the  Scripture ;  but  the  same 
Scripture  must  be  brought  to  show  that  they  do  so.  And  the 
word  of  God  has  made  provision  that  every  error  and  mismider- 
standing  may  be  refuted  out  of  itself.  We  may  send  the  faith- 
Pharisees  to  the  Epistles  to  the  Eomans  and  Galatians,  and 
expound  to  them  the  sayings  which  they  abuse  in  their  true 
spu'it  and  connection  there  ;  but  St  James  in  his  day  could  not 
do  that,  and  therefore  goes  back  to  tlie  Old  Testament.  Two 
examples  taken  from  it  he  places  in  their  true  light.  First, 
naturally,  the  great  example  of  Abraham,  whom  he  calls,  with 
Israel  after  the  flesh  and  the  church  of  Christ  after  the  Spirit, 
our  father ;  for  he  is,  and  must  ever  be,  the  father  of  believers. 
Thus  the  same  great  example  which  St  Paul  adduces,  in  the 
Epistle  to  the  Romans,  to  oppose  the  dead  works  of  the  law,  St 
James  likewise  employs  as  against  a  dead  faith :  probably  with 
conscious  intention,  or  led  by  the  Spirit,  to  provide  beforehand 
against  the  perversion  of  New-Testament  Scripture  also.  And 
by  his  side  he  places  the  harlot  Bahab,  whose  position  in  the 
history,  as  we  shall  see,  is  variously  important  in  this  question, 
and  whose  faith  St  Paul  commends  to  the  Hebrews. 

Was  not  Abraham,  our  father,  justified  by  works  ?  St  James 
lays  down  this  position — which  now  frst  literally  opposes  the 
doctrinal  language  of  the  Apostle  Paul,  and  seems  to  contradict 
the  testimony  of  Scriptui'e  itself  concerning  the  righteousness 
of  Abraham  through  faith — in  his  bold  question  as  a  certain 
truth,  which  was  incontrovertibly  attested  and  illustrated  in  the 
whole  history  of  Abraham's  character  and  life.  And  how  does 
he  demonstrate  it?  By  an  effectual  stroke  he  at  once  mentions 
the  last,  greatest,  mightiest  work  of  Abraham's  faith — when 
he  offered  his  son  Isaac  upon  the  altar !  Even  we,  brethren, 
who  may  rightly  speak  a  little  of  the  works  of  oui*  faith,  are  far 
from  reaching  the  point  of  this  sacrifice  of  the  father  of  be- 
lievers. "What  are  the  sacrifices  which  God,  testing  the  genu- 
ineness of  our  faith,  has  required  of  us,  in  comparison  of  that 

z 


354        THi  WORKS  OF  ABRAHAl^l's  AND  RAHAB's  FAITH. 

only-begotten  son,  on  \A^hose  life  the  whole  promise  to  Abraham 
seemed  to  rest  ?  And  have  we  made  the  sacrifices  demanded  of 
us  with  the  same  obedience  1  How  slow  has  been  our  heart  to 
submit,  when  God  has  taken  from  us  some  bosom-child  of  our 
love,  some  object  of  our  hope — altogether  unable  to  give  up 
of  ourselves  the  gift  demanded,  as  Abraham  gave  up  Isaac ! 
And  you,  whose  faith  is  mere  empty  delusion,  how  do  you  strive 
against  God,  instead  of  trusting  and  obeying  Him,  when  He 
requires  of  you  the  sacrifice  of  the  least  things  !  St  James 
might  have  adduced,  when  speaking  of  the  loorks  of  Abraham, 
his  whole  life  from  the  beginning  to  the  end.  His  exodus  in 
obedience  to  God's  command  was  a  first  work  of  his  faith,  even 
as  we  are  called  to  do  likewise  in  going  out  from  the  world  and 
self.  And  let  us  call  to  mind  how  he  everywhere  bore  testi- 
mony and  made  his  confession,  building  altars  and  proclaiming 
the  name  of  the  Lord — how  full  he  was  of  peace  to  Lot,  yet 
how  valiant  against  the  kino;s — how  humble  he  was  before  the 
priest  of  the  Most  High  God,  and  yet  how  proudly  unselfish 
before  the  king  of  Sodom — how  hospitable  in  his  service  to 
every  traveller  to  his  tent  in  Mamre.  But  in  this,  that  he  offered 
his  son  Isaac,  was  exhibited  his  highest  and  noblest  work. 
Moreover,  St  James,  summing  up  all  in  this  last,  makes  it  pro- 
minent, because  this  evidence  of  Abraham's  faith  by  his  works 
had  not  to  do  with  men,  but  only  with  his  God.  Only  before 
God,  in  secret  mystery — until  it  was  afterwards  made  manifest — 
this  most  proper  work  of  faith  was  done ;  but  it  was  truly  a  tcoi^k, 
an  act,  in  which  Abraham's  whole  faith  and  life  was  summed 
up  and  approved.  What  St  Paul  says  is  true,  in  its  deepest 
principle — "i?_y  faith  Abraham  offered  up  Isaac,  when  he  was 
tempted"  (Heb.  xi.  17).  But  God  tempted  him  that  he  might 
demonstrate  his  faith  by  such  a  work  :  He  said  also  to  Abraham 
— Show  Me  thy  faith  !  If  thou  believest  in  Me  and  Mj  word, 
canst  thou  do  this  also  ? 

The  same  God  requires  of  all  His  believers;  ever}^vhere 
in  His  word,  and  in  every  man  by  His  Spirit's  voice.  St  Paul 
requires  works  at  the  close  of  all  his  Epistles,'  after  he  has  pre- 
viously established  the  doctrine  of  faith.  We  must  always  be 
ready,  when  called  by  God,  to  say  with  Abraham — Jlet^e  lam! 
Here  is  my  faith  in  Thee  and  Thy  word,  O  Lord ;  Thou  shalt 
find  it,  when  Thou  seekest  and  triest  it !    I  am  Thine,  and  dedi- 


JAMES  II.  20-2C.  355 

cated  to  Thee,  with  all  that  I  have  and  am,  for  Thou  hast  be- 
come my  God !  For,  that  first  word  of  grace  from  God  in 
whicl:.  we  believe,  "  I  am  thy  God  !"  includes  always  within  it, 
"  and  art  thou  Mine !"  The  first  faith,  which  embraces  this,  has 
laid  itself  under  this  blessed  obligation.  Thus  obedience  is  an 
absolute  necessity  in  believing  !  Obedience,  even  when  God's 
commandment  appears  to  be  hard  and  incomprehensible,  and 
even  a  contradiction  to  His  promise ;  in  that  must  approve  itself 
our  trust  that  God  is  right,  and  will  maintain  right.  Thus 
Abraham  gave  up  the  same  only-begotten  son,  of  whom  it  had 
been  said — In  Isaac  shall  thy  seed  be  called  !  He  received 
him  back  again  for  a  type ;  but  he  had  actually  given  him  up 
in  all  earnestness  of  will  and  act  when  he  laid  his  bound  son 
on  the  altar  and  stretched  out  his  hand  to  slay  him  : — that 
St  James  means  in  the  expression,  "  when  he  offered  him  iqjon 
the  altar r  It  is  the  altar  of  faith,  of  the  worship  of  God  in 
faith,  on  which  we  also  present  cur  works  to  God,  the  works 
which  He  requires  in  His  tests  and  trials.  If  we  are  justified 
through  faith,  that  righteousness  shows  and  consummates  itself 
only  by  icorJcs.  Our  Lord  Himself  taught  the  same  when  He 
said,  in  opposition  to  the  vaingl crying  of  the  Jews — If  ye 
were  Abraham's  children,  ye  would  do  the  works  of  Abraham  ! 
(John  viii.  39). 

St  James  might  now  have  passed  at  once  to  his  conclusion 
—  Ye  see  then,  that  a  man  is  justified  by  works,  and  not  by  faith 
alone.  That  is,  not  by  the  works  of  the  law,  the  dead  works, 
to  which  St  James  no  more  than  St  Paul  attributes  any  value. 
That  is,  also,  at  first  not  justified  merely  by  faith,  which  actually 
alone  can  establish  and  renew  the  sinner  into  a  righteousness 
which  avails  before  God,  which  God  requires  from  us,  and  be- 
holds in  us  at  first  only  as  faith  and  confidence  in  the  word 
of  His  gi'ace.  But  that  is,  once  more :  not  by  a  mere  faith, 
which  should  be  without  strength  and  influence,  and  therefore 
might  remain  without  works ;  for,  as  certainly  as  the  word  of 
God's  grace  cannot  be  a  mere  arbitrary  declaration  that  the 
sinner  is  righteous,  but  is  living  and  mighty,  the  seed  of  re- 
generation— so  certainly  does  the  new  righteousness  of  the  ac- 
cepted man  consummate  and  approve  itself  in  the  new  works 
of  his  faith. 

In  order  to  make  this  quite  clear,  St  James  prepares  for  his 


356         THE  WORKS  OF  ABRAHAM'S  AND  RAHAC  S  FAITH. 

conclusion  from  Abraham's  example  by  a  few  mediating  clauses. 
Thou  seest  then,  that  faith  tvrought  together  in  his  tcorks,  and 
hy  loorhs  was  his  faith  made  perfect.  In  fact,  he  who  seeth  this, 
seeth  the  matter  rightly;  he  who  understands  these  words  of 
St  James,  understands  the  profound  unity  of  the  different  aspects 
of  the  doctrine  of  faith  and  works — their  inseparability,  whether 
in  Abraham  or  in  any  other  believers.  This  saying  contains — 
as  some  one  has  said — "  the  formula  of  solution  for  this  apparent 
contradiction  :  faith  creates  works,  works  perfect  faith."  Faith 
remains  incontrovertibly  the  beginning,  source,  and  ground  of 
all.  But  this  justifying  faith  is  so  great  and  mighty  a  thing, 
that  it  does  not  in  us  poor  sinners  attain  its  j^ofection  so  rapidly 
and  at  once ;  we  begin  to  believe  in  weakness,  there  is  yet  un- 
belief present  in  us.  The  great  task  of  this  faith  is  to  transform 
the  whole  man  ;  so  that,  penetrated  by  faith  and  entirely  re- 
newed, he  should  be  finally  and  in  perfect  truth  made  righteous. 
Consequently,  there  must  be  a  gradual  exercise  and  strengthening, 
testing  and  confirmation  of  faith;  the  same  with  which  the  Epistle 
set  out.  If  there  were  no  faith,  whence  could  the  works  come  ? 
For  the  works  of  the  natural  man,  because  they  have  no  faith 
in  them,  are  dead  in  themselves.  But,  again,  where  no  works 
issue  from  it  and  follow,  the  faith  must  assuredly  perish  and 
die  out :  they  are  the  oil  which  feeds  the  lamp  in  burning.  So 
must  faith  loork  toith,  co-operate  in,  the  works — that  is,  help  to 
good  works,  create  these  works  through  its  living  power  and 
influence.  He  that  knoweth  to  do  good,  and  doeth  it  not,  to 
him  it  is  sin !  (Jas.  iv.  17).  And  in  the  gi'eat  sin,  that  we  know 
and  do  not,  we  all  lie  involved  by  jnature — as  Eom.  vii.  teaches 
us.  We  have  neither  desire  nor  power  to  do  good ;  faith  gives 
us  both.  And  while  that  faith  is  thus  exercised  and  confirmed  in 
works,  it  becomes  stronger  and  stronger,  and  thus  is  finally  by 
works  made  perfect.  That  is,  again,  not  as  if  anything  from 
the  works  externally  is  added  to  faith ;  but  that  which  is  not  of 
faith  is  sin  (Rom.  xiv.  23).  Therefore  St  James  by  no  means 
says  that  by  the  works  faith  is  made  living,  brought  out,  created, 
or  the  like ;  for  faith  cometh  through  the  power  of  the  word, 
when  that  enters  into  us  and  is  embraced  by  us — and -thro vigli 
nothing  else.  But  faith  hecomes  perfect  in  the  works  ;  according 
to  St  Paul's  doctrine,  or  the  Lord's  words  to  him — that  the 
strength  of  God  is  made  perfect  in  weakness  (2  Cor.  xii.  9). 


JAMES  II.  20-26.  357 

The  power  of  faith,  indwelhng  from  the  outset,  and  in  the 
first  hxying  hold  of  grace  altogether  received,  becomes  perfectly 
manifested,  approved,  and  its  influence  perfected.  Thus  our 
calling  and  election  is,  in  the  diligence  of  life  and  action,  made 
sure  (2  Pet.  i.  10).  So  was  Abraham's  first  calling  made 
sure  by  his  last  works ;  and  the  word  concerning  righteousness 
by  faith,  which  had  been  before  spoken  to  him,  was  thus  con- 
firmed and  demonstrated  by  fact  to  be  a  truth. 

This  alone  is  what  St  James  means,  when  he  profoundly  and 
wisely  continues — And  the  Scripture  was  fulfilled  which  said, 
Abraham  believed  God,  and  it  was  reckoned  unto  him  for  right- 
eousness. It  is  far  from  his  desire  to  abolish  or  overturn  this 
word ;  he  rather  shows  it  to  us,  in  Abraham,  in  the  fulfilment  and 
consummation  of  its  truth.  "When  Moses  records  this  justifying 
sentence  of  God  upon  Abraham,  there  was  no  action  performed ; 
faith  seized  God's  word -^ So  shall  thy  seed  be!  as  now  our 
faith  the  word — Thy  sins  be  forgiven  thee  !  Thou  shalt  not 
die,  but  live  !  But  there  follows  in  this  new  life  the  abundance 
of  works  in  order  to  the  perfection  of  faith.  Not  as  a  be- 
liever without  works,  but  as  one  united  to  his  God  in  the  con- 
fidence of  obedience  and  love,  could  father  Abraham  receive  the 
nam.e  of  honour — a  Friend  of  God.  This  is  the  name  which  the 
Arabs,  who  boast  of  their  descent  from  him,  give  him  to  this  day. 
It  is  true  that  the  expression  is  not  literally  found  in  any  one 
place  of  Scripture ;  the  apocryphal  passage,  Judith  viii.  19, 
has  it  merely  in  a  later  translation,  although  with  reference  to 
a  phrase  common  in  the  land.  The  whole  history  of  Abraham, 
as  recorded  by  Moses,  exhibits  him  to  us  as  a  confidential  friend 
of  God,  with  whom  He  conversed  as  a  man  with  his  friend.  When, 
for  example,  the  Lord  said — How  can  I  conceal  from  Abi'aham 
the  thing  which  I  do  ?  (Gen.  xviii.  17),  we  may  natui'ally  think 
of  Christ's  saying — The  'servant  knoweth  not  what  his  lord 
doeth  ;  but  I  have  called  you  friends,  for  I  have  made  known 
unto  you  all  (John  xv.  15).  This  is,  and  must  ever  be,  the 
name  and  the  honour  of  Abraham  in  the  history  of  men.  In 
the  Prophet  the  Lord  calleth  to  His  people — Thou  seed  of 
Abraham,  My  beloved!  (Is.  xli.  8)  ;  and  so  prays  Jehosaphat — 
Didst  thou  not,  O  God,  give  this  land  to  the  seed  of  Abraham, 
TJuj  beloved  ?  (2  Chron.  xx.  7).  He  was  a  lover  of  God  !  God 
indeed  loved  him  first,  but  that  he  might  afterwards  love  Him 


358         THE  WORKS  OF  ABRAHAM'S  AND  EAHAb's  FAITH. 

in  return.  So  is  it  with  all  believers,  and  so  with  us.  Could 
the  love  of  God  remain  in  those  who  love  Him  not,  and  who 
give  not  themselves  and  all  that  they  have  to  Him  %  Is  God  a 
God  of  the  dead?  a  Friend  and  Saviour  of  sinners  remaining 
in  their  sins  ?  Ye  are  (and  continue)  My  friends,  if  you  do 
whatsoever  I  command  you  !  saith  the  Saviour  of  sinners  in  the 
New  Testament  to  His  chosen  ones,  that  they  might  bring  forth 
fruit  (John  xv.  14).  If  Abraham  had  not  spoken  in  the  act — 
Here  am  I !  but — I  cannot  give  Thee  up  Isaac,  O  Lord  !  would 
he  then  have  been  called  the  Friend  of  God  ? 

Likeiuise,  was  not  the  harlot  Rahah  justified  by  works,  when 
she  received  the  messengers,  and  sent  them  out  another  way  ?  — 
Rahab,  a  Gentile  of  a  cursed  seed,  the  abominations  and  iniquities 
of  which  had  become  full,  so  that  the  land  spued  out  its  inhabi- 
tants, and  the  Lord  could  deal  with  them  only  in  sheer  destruc- 
tion !  But  hi/  faith  she  was  not  lost  with  the  unbelievers,  Mdien 
she  received  the  spies  in  peace  (Heb.  xi.  31).  By  the  side  of 
Abraham  stands  her  name  now  in  high  heaven !  She  is  joined 
to  Israel,  like  Ruth  the  Moabitess,  over  whom  Boaz  testified — 
The  Lord  reward  the  Avork  (of  thy  faith  and  love)  ;  and  may 
thy  recompense  (like  Abraham's)  be  perfect  from  the  Lord,  the 
God  of  Israel,  under  the  shadow  of  whose  wings  thou  art  come 
to  trust  (Ruth  ii.  12).  Thus  it  was  to  faith  in  the  power  and 
goodness  of  the  true  God  to  which  Rahab's  heart,  not  daringly 
presumptuous  like  that  of  the  other  Canaanites,  was  opened. 
But  her  commencing  faith,  too,  was  confirmed  at  once,  as  was 
natural  and  necessary,  by  her  acting  accordingly ;  so  that  like- 
wise, similarly,  her  example  approves  the  rule — by  works  !  In- 
deed she  was  a  weak  woman,  not  a  man  of  great  and  strong 
faith  like  Abraham  ;  trained  up  among  the  godless  Canaanites, 
and  hitherto  living  in  shameless  whoredom,  quenching  all  sense 
of  purity.  Therefore  the  first  act  of  her  faith  was  not  so  great  as 
Abraham's  exodus,  it  was  not  free  from  hesitation  and  dissem- 
bling :  she  hid  the  men,  and  said — They  went  hence,  and  I  know 
not  whither  they  have  gone  !  (Josh.  ii.  5).  But  in  this  veiy 
thing  St  James  gives  us  a  comforting  truth  out  of  Scripture, 
the  counterpart  and  gentler  aspect  of  the  Isaac-oifering  demanded 
of  us.  God  demands  not  of  the  feeble  at  the  beginning  the 
gi'cat  works  of  consummate  faith  ;  He  beholds  even  in  the  im- 
perfect act  the  faith  which  prompts  it,  if  faith  is  actually  ope- 


JAMES  II.  20-26.  359 

rating  in  its  performance.  Abraham  and  Rahah  stand  in  this 
chapter  of  St  James,  in  more  ways  than  one,  contrasted.  In  his 
case,  it  is  a  work  before  the  face  of  God,  prepared  for  in  the 
long  practice  of  the  obedience  of  faith.  In  her  case,  it  is  an 
act  towards  men  for  God's  sake,  in  which  the  confidence  shoAvs 
itself  still  fearful ;  but  it  is  faith  in  God,  and  therefore  love  to 
His  messengers  therein.  In  his  case,  it  is  the  high  goal  and  end 
of  the  works  of  faith  (for  with  the  offering  of  Isaac  Abraham's 
history  closes ;  he  could  do  no  greater  thing ;  his  faith  was 
{)erfected  in  this  work).  In  her  case,  it  is  the  weak  commence- 
ment of  the  demonstration  of  a  faith  now  beginnino;  to  exist. 
Rahab  received  the  messengers  of  the  true  God,  before  she  her- 
self was  received  of  Him ;  but  therefore  her  reward  was  sui'e, 
so  that  she  was  not  only  preserved  in  life,  but  received  more 
grace  unto  salvation,  for  the  sake  of  her  vigorous  first  faith. 
And  with  her  we  may  compare  those  who  are  disposed  to  come 
out  of  the  world  and  enter  among  the  people  of  God,  who  re- 
ceive the  disciples  of  Christ  and  give  them  food  in  Plis  name, 
because  they  are  His  disciples  (Matt.  x.  42).  But  how  much 
more  should  we,  beloved,  who  have  already  received  the  full 
grace,  approve  in  act  the  truth  of  our  faith  and  of  our  love  to- 
wards those  who  are  sent  to  us  of  our  Lord !  "  Wlierefore 
receive  ye  one  another,  even  as  Christ  received  us  to  the  glory 
of  God"  (Rom.  XV.  7). 

Where  such  w^orks  are  not  found,  the  solemn  concluding 
words  of  St  James  hold  irreversibly  good — As  the  body  without 
the  spirit  is  dead,  so  faith  without  works  is  dead  also.  Witli- 
out  spirit  and  the  breath  of  life  through  the  soul  within,  the 
body  is  no  longer  a  body,  but  a  corpse,  having  the  semblance 
of  life,  but  carrying  within  it  corruption.  Such  sepulchres  are 
the  Pharisees,  with  their  work  of  hypocrisy,  and  without  faith 
in  the  heart ;  but  much  worse  and  fouler  are  the  dead  bodies 
which  lie  about  faith,  and  give  no  evidence  of  tlie  life  of  faith 
by  works.  Properly  spealdng,  faith  is  the  health  or  spirit  of 
life  ;  and  the  body  may  be  likened  to  works,  or  the  walk.  But 
for  the  perverse  St  James  must  invert  the  figui'e,  and  draw  his 
conclusion  from  without  to  within  :  "  Where  is  then  the  breath 
in  the  body,  if  the  body  does  not  move,  and  walk,  and  act  ? 
Show  that  yom-  faith  is  a  living  body,  a  spirit  in  the  body, 
through  the  demonstration  of  the  spirit  and  of  power  in  works!" 


SCO  I'^OT  EVEUT  MAN  A  TEACHEE. 

Thus  a  dead"  faith  is  a  lie  and  a  contradiction  ;  like  a  body 
without  breath,  a  life  without  feeling  and  motion. 


XVIII. 

NOT  EVERY  MAN  A  TEACHER. 

(Ch.  iii.  1,  2.) 

My  brethren,  be  not  many  teachers,  knowing  that  -we  shall  receive  the  greater 
condemnation.  For  in  many  things  we  offend  all.  If  any  man  offend 
not  in  word,  the  same  is  a  perfect  man,  and  able  also  to  bridle  the  whole 
body. 

With  the  third  chapter  St  James  seems  to  begin  something 
new,  without  specific  expression  of  connection ;  but  it  only 
seems  so,  for  his  Epistle  is  thoroughly  well  arranged  through- 
out. From  the  conviction  of  impatience,  and  disobedience,  and 
presumption,  and  the  denunciation  of  a  mere  profession  of  faith' 
without  the  works  of  faith,  the  transition  is  obvioiTS  to  one  great 
expression  of  that  evil  spirit,  the  prematui'e  zeal  to  become 
teachers.  It  has  been  remarked  that  St  James,  setting  out  in 
his  Epistle  with  true  wisdom  in  jxttience  under  trial,  as  the 
proper  test  of  a  faith  which  must  be  approved,  and  retiu'ning  to 
the  same  point  at  its  conclusion,  adheres  throughout  the  middle 
of  it  to  the  great  theme  laid  down  in  ch.  i.  19 — "  Swift  to 
hear,  but  slow  to  speak,  and  slow  to  wrath."  To  be  Joers  of 
the  word  and  not  hearers  only,  or  rather  in  deed  and  truth 
ruihthj  to  hear — is  the  point  to  which  all,  from  ch.  i.  22  to  the 
end  of  the  second  chapter,  refers.  He  now  rebukes  more  dis- 
tinctly the  prurience  and  sin  of  the  tongue  in  its  swift  speaking ; 
and  continues  this  into  exhortations  against  lorath,  against  envy 
and  contention,  warfare  and  quarrelling,  slandering  and  con- 
demnation of  brethren. 

That  we  cannot  and  should  not  all  be  teachers,  might  be  a 
thing  taken  for  granted  generally,  and  especially  in  every 
church  of  believers ;  f9r  it  is  no  small  matter  to  be  a  house- 
holder faithful  and  wise,  whom  the  Lord  sets  over  His  house- 
hold !  (Luke  xii.  42).  Tliere  are  always  many  not  called  to  this, 
in  contrast  with  the  few  called ;  hence  St  James  only  says — 


JA3IES  III.   1,  2.  3ul 

B3  not  many  of  you  teachers,  by  wliich  he  means  almost  the  same 
which  Luther's  translation  has  much  more  strongly  expressed. 
"  Ye  many,  ye  who  are  called  to  the  hearing  and  doing  of  the 
word,  become  not,  without  vocation  and  out  of  your  o^\ai  prema- 
ture will,  teachers ;  'undertake  not  an  office  to  which  ye  are  not 
called."  The  Lord  alone  sends  His  servants,  and  sets  one  of 
them  above  the  rest.  To  every  one  the  grace  is  given  accord- 
ing to  the  measure  of  the  gift  of  Christ ;  but  all  are  as  mem- 
bers in  the  bo  ly.  The  Lord  has  only  appointed  some  to  be 
Apostles,  some  to  be  prophets,  some  evangelists,  some  pastors 
and  teachers  (Eph.  iv.  7,  11).  Are  they  all  Apostles  ?  Are 
they  all  prophets  ?  Are  all  teachers  ?  (1  Cor.  xii.  29).  "  Hath 
God  not  given  thee  the  unfrequent  gift  of  teaching?  then 
be  a  good  hearer,  and  doer  of  the  work."  To  the  office  of 
teaching  belongs  a  gift  of  teaching  from  above  :  oh  that  the  two 
were  always  united !  It  was  so  for  the  most  part  in  the  apos- 
tolical time ;  the  Apostles  themselves,  led  by  the  Holy  Ghost 
(as  they  reserved  to  themselves  the  appointment  of  the  first  elders 
in  the  churches,  see  Acts  xiv.  23),  appointed  only  those  whose 
gifts  they  knew ;  and  to  his  son  Timothy  St  Paul  rigorously 
enjoins — That  which  thou  hast  heard,  commit  thou  to  faithful 
men,  who  shall  be  able  to  teach  others  also  (2  Tim.  ii.  2).  Yet 
was  this  not  an  exclusive  authorisation  ;  but,  in  this  season  of 
abundant  gifts,  the  rule  for  all  was — Quench  not  the  Spirit! 
Despise  not  prophesying  !  (1  Thess.  v.  19,  20).  He  whom  the 
Lord's  call  impelled,  and  whom  the  Lord's  gift  justified  and 
approved,  might  exercise  his  gift  of  speaking  and  teaching  in 
the  church ;  hence  the  necessity  for  this  dehortation  from  a 
presumptuous  usurpation  of  the  office.  Nevertheless,  there  was 
from  the  beginning  an  ordinance  whereby  pastors  and  teachers 
were  to  be  specifically  set  apart  to  be  over  the  church  and  ac- 
knowledged as  such — ruling  elders  who  laboured  in  the  word 
and  doctrine  (1  Tim.  v.  17).  Hence  the  exhortation — "  Obey 
them  that  have  the  rule  over  you,  and  submit  yourselves  !"  (Heb. 
xiii.  17).  Plence  the  warning  here — Not  many  or  all  of  you 
should  exalt  themselves,  as  if  they  were  teachers  in  vocation  and 
office  !  But  this  does  not  forbid  the  occasional  teachino;  fjene- 
rally  of  every  person  who  is  capable,  in  private  as  in  public  ;  we 
are  told — "  Ye  may  all  prophesy  one  by  one,  that  all  may  learn, 
and  all  may  be  comforted"  (1  Cor.  xiv.  31). 


382  NOT  EVERY  MAN  A  TEACHEE. 

These  primitive  relations  have  long  been  changed  :  the  office 
of  one  above  tlie  many  has  become  more  exclusive ;  nor  could 
it  be  otherwise  in  the  present  condition  of  things.  We  should 
honour  the  office,  and  pay  respect  to  the  holy  ordinance,  even 
where  the  appointed  teacher  has  small  gift  of  teaching,  and 
even  where  lie  does  not  utter  God's  word  in  its  perfect  purity. 
Publicly  in  God's  service  only  the  appointed  ministry  should  be 
heard ;  for  who  does  not  know  the  c^onsequences  whicli  would 
ensue  from  general  license  in  this  matter  ?  But  there  may  be 
many  found  who  are  capable,  and  some  who  only  think  they 
are,  of  teaching  and  exhorting  in  the  midst  of  the  church.  To 
forbid  or  to  suppress  this  in  itself,  as  if  it  wei'e  not  right,  cannot 
be  defended  by  any  well-instructed  Christian  even  of  the  pre- 
sent day.  St  James  does  not  intend  that  his  word — which  is 
rather  a  warning  than  an  express  prohibition — should  be  so 
applied ;  we  cannot  understand  it  in  the  sense  of  the  Roman 
Catholics,  who  have  established  an  unevangelical  distinction 
between  the  priesthood  and  the  laity.  Every  believer  has  in 
Christ  a  portion  in  the  universal  priesthood  of  His  people  ; 
every  man  instructed  of  God  in  the  universal  prophetic  func- 
tion. When  our  Lord  says — "  Be  not  ye  called  Rabbi,  for  one 
is  your  Master,  even  Christ,  and  all  ye  are  brethren"  (Matt, 
xxiii.  8) — this  means,  by  inverting  the  words — Every  brother 
should,  as  a  brother,  in  the  name  of  the  Lord,  teach  others.  He 
who  has  been  made  wise  out  of  the  word  of  the  Lord  may  glory 
with  David — I  am  wiser  than  my  teachers ;  for  Thy  testimonies 
are  my  meditation.  I  am  wiser  than  the  ancients ;  for  I  keep 
Thy  commandments  (Ps.  cxix.  99,  100).  If  not  in  the  public 
assembly,  yet  in  those  more  select  meetings  which  ought  to  exist 
among  us,  we  should  exhort  one  another ;  and  so  much  the  more 
as  we  see  the  day  approaching  (Heb.  x.  25).  Exhort  oiie  another 
daily !  This  includes  the  giving  heed  whether  any  of  us  needeth 
the  exhortation  (Heb.  iii.  12,  13) — for  I  must  love  my  neigh- 
bour as  myself.  Therefore,  in  our  days  as  in  the  apostolical, 
the  truth  must  be  remembered  which  St  Paul  intimates,  when 
he  places  the  office  of  the  elders  in  connection  with  the  universal 
duty  of  Christians  :  "  Wherefore  exlfort  yourselves  together, 
and  edify  one  another.  Know  them  which  labour  among  you, 
and  are  over  you  in  the  Lord.  But  we  (rulers)  exhort  you, 
warn  them  that  are  unruly,  comfort  the  feeble-minded,  support 


JAMES  III.  1,  2.  363 

the  weak"  (1  Thess.  v.  11-14).  Certainly,  we  must  observe 
that  this  kind  of  exhortation  and  help  is  something  different 
from  the  mere  instruction  in  knowledge  of  which  St  James  is 
speaking.  For  if  the  word  of  Christ  dwell  in  us  richly  in  all 
wisdom,  it  is  not  mere  teaching,  but  a  teaching  and  admonishing 
(Col.  iii.  16)  ;  and  to  this  duty  all  Christians  of  the  present  day 
pressingly  need  to  be  stimulated  and  encouraged.  We  are  as  yet 
very  far  from  the  New-Testament  promise — "And  they  shall 
not  teach  every  man  his  neighbour,  and  every  man  his  brother, 
saying.  Know  the  Lord  :  for  all  shall  know  Me,  from  the  least 
to  the  greatest"  (Heb.  viii.  11).  But  those  who  do  know  Him 
in  the  ripeness  of  experience,  ought  to  be  teachers  of  their  weak 
brethren,  and  even  of  the  wholly  ignorant  (Heb.  v.  12). 

But,  after  all  this,  which  is  not  denied,  St  James  warningly 
shows  us  the  other  side  of  the  question,  the  great  danger  and 
heavy  responsibility  of  becoming  teachers,  especially  without 
vocation  and  gift  from  above !  In  all  teachino;  and  exhortation 
of  his  brethren  which  a  fallible  man  may  undertake,  he  must 
hear  the  warning — Look  to  thyself !  There  is  indeed  a  spiritual 
work  for  the  truly  spiritual,  which  can  only  be  accomplished 
through  the  power  which  God  giveth,  and  which  demands  much 
wisdom,  prudence,  patience,  and  love.  But  for  that  office  Avbich 
St  James  means,  the  continuous  work  of  office  and  life  as  teachers 
of  others,  teachers  of  all  the  knowledge  of  the  whole  word  of 
truth — who  is  sufficient  for  this  1  Who  can  think  that  he  will 
accomplish  it  without  lapses,  error,  and  sin  !  Truly  it  may  be 
said — Know,  consider,  and  forget  not,  that  we  shall  receive  the 
severer  judgment  I  For  our  own  souls  the  judgment  will  be  severe 
and  heavy :  Who  would  thoughtlessly  take  it  upon  him  to  stand 
for  the  souls  of  others  1  It  is  said  generally,  ]\Iany  are  called, 
but  few  chosen ;  but  who  would  call  himself,  and  thereby  the 
more  surely  fall  into  condemnation  1  Many,  however,  did  so 
then,  and  many,  alas !  do  so  now.  Ahimaaz,  the  son  of  Zadok, 
cried,  "  Let  me  now  run,"  and  would  not  be  persuaded  that  he 
should  find  no  reward  of  his  errand :  he  clung  to  his  own  words, 
"Howsoever,  let  me  also  run!"  (2  Sam.  xviii.  19-23).  Such 
teachers  and  runners,  who  are  not  sent,  are  plentiful  enough. 
These  are  not  the  true  teachers  and  masters  who  will  shine  as 
the  brightness  of  the  firmament  (Dan.  xii.  3) — evil  will  be  their 
lot  in  the  end.      Their  teaching  is  unapt  and  unblessed ;    it 


364  NOT  evi:ry  3ian  a  teacher. 

cannot  tui'n  any  to  righteousness,,  for  it  comes  itself  from  mi- 
righteoLisness,  and  of  the  presumption  and  vanity  of  the  evil 
heart.  Be  subject  one  to  another  in  the  fear  of  God  !  Serve 
one  another !  is  the  language  of  the  Spirit ;  but  the  flesh  per- 
verts it — Exalt  yourselves  into  dominion  over  each  other  !  The 
impulse  to  show  oui'selves  wiser  than  others,  and  to  be  teachers, 
urges  the  natural  man  from  childhood  upwards ;  and  in  too 
many  Christians  it  is  marvellously  strong  through  life.  Sup- 
press all  such  presumptuous  outgoings  in  your  children ;  suppress 
it  also  in  yom'selves ;  quench  your  own  spirit !  Here  lies  the 
way  to  error  and  ruin :  how  often  is  it  that,  the  more  a  man 
would  teach  others,  the  more  he  forgets  himself ;  the  less  he 
will  be  taught  himself,  the  less  he  will  refrain  his  own  feet  from 
every  evil  way  that  he  may  keep  God's  word  (Ps.  cxix.  101) 
— the  more  ready  he  is  to  teach  others  the  way  !  All  such  do 
their  mischief,  and  shall  receive  their  reward.  And  the  warning 
against  it  is  addressed  to  us  all. 

For — in  many  things  we  fail  all !  If  any  man  fail  not  in 
word,  he  is  a  perfect  man,  able  also  to  bridle  the  whole  body. 
This  is  a  general  truth ;  and  one  which  is  very  solemn  and 
humbling,  when  we  think  of  the  coming  judgment.  In  many 
tilings  ice  all  fail !  It  is  true  that  the  careless  pervert  this  say- 
ing as  well  as  that  other — We  are  altogether  sinners  !  But  our 
conscience  tells  us  plainly  that  the  words  were  not  given  for 
our  excuse  and  false  security.  The  failing  of  the  regenerate  is 
no  longer  a  wilful  sinning  :  it  is  not  written — In  many  things 
we  must  and  we  may  offend!  but — Therefore  take  the  more 
earnest  heed,  that  ye  may  receive  the  less  condemnation  !  We, 
alas !  all  fail ; '  we  stumble  even  yet  in  our  work  and  walk :  but 
every  such  instance  in  us,  every  stumblingblock  we  cast  before 
others,  draws  upon  us  a  greater  condemnation,  if  it  has  been 
committed  by  one  who  undertakes  to  be  a  teacher  and  guide  of 
others.  We  should  indeed  show  our  faith  by  oui'  works,  and  not 
without  works ;  in  order  that  we  may  not  mislead  others  by  our 
example,  and  teach  a  dead  faith.  Who  is  a  wise  man,  and  endued 
witli  knowledge  among  you  ?  Who  would  be  a  teacher  1  .  Let 
him  before  all  things  show  his  own  works  in  a  good  couversation ! 
So  speaks  St  James  afterwards  in  ver.  13. 

What  a  condemnation  will  fall  upon  the  wicked,  whom 
St  Paul,  Rom.  ii.  19-23,  has  described  and  already  judged  ! 


JA3IES  III.  1,  2.  365 

"  Thou  art  confident  that  tlion  art  thyself  a  guide  of  tlie  Wind, 
a  light  of  them  which  are  in  darkness,  an  instructor  of  the 
foolish,  a  teacher  of  babes,  which  hast  the  fonn  of  knowledge 
and  of  the  truth  in  the  law.  Thou  teachest  others,  and  teachest 
not  thyself.  Thou  preachest  a  man  should  not  sin,  and  sinnest 
thyself.  Thou  makest  thy  boast  in  the  law,  and  through  break- 
ing of  the  law  dishonourest  God."  How  much  greater  the  con- 
demnation of  those  who,  still  worse,  elevate  themselves  into 
teachers  of  the  gospel^  and  themselves  are  not  obedient  to  the 
gospel !  Or,  are  there  none  such  ?  Our  Lord,  in  His  parable. 
Matt,  xxii.,  brings  forward  two  classes  of  those  not  chosen — 
Such  as  come  not  at  all,  and  such  as  come  without  the  wed- 
ding-gamient.  But  we  may  go  further,  and  include  others  who 
are  not  mentioned  there  :  such  as  help  to  invite  the  guests  with- 
out being  themselves  sent,  without  having  themselves  received 
aright  the  invitation.  They  stop  the  way  of  the  servants,  and 
do  much  mischief.  They  dispute,  and  teach  subtleties,  up  to 
the  very  door,  concerning  the  wedding-garment,  which  they  re- 
commend to  others  without  putting  it  on  themselves.  They  have 
much  to  say  about  its  value,  and  how  it  is  wrought,  and  the  like 
— but  tliey  remain  unclothed,  and  do  not  really  help  others  to 
enter.  A  heavy  condemnation  will  rest  vipon  them,  even  if — 
and  all  the  more,  if  (which,  however,  is  not  possible!) — their 
whole  teaching  had  been  correct,  according  to  the  form  of  know- 
ledge and  of  truth. 

But  St  James  continues.  If  any  man  fail  not  in  word,  he 
would  be  a  perfect  man — which  we  all  of  us  are  not.  And  for 
teachers,  it  is  the  ri<Tht  and  true  u'ord  which  is  here  concerned  ! 
Primarily,  the  right  word,  as  a  word  not  merely  of  truth,  but 
of  love,  with  all  meekness  of  wisdom,  w^ith  all  patience  of  teach- 
ing. Words  of  contention  and  pride,  or  impatience,  always  rain 
all.  But  here  Sirach  speaks  like  St  James — "There  is  one  .that 
shppeth  in  his  speech,  but  meaneth  it  not  in  his  heart;  and 
who  is  he  that  hath  not  offended  with  his  tongue?"  (Ecclus. 
xix.  16).  They  angered  Moses — the  meekest  of  men  upon  earth 
(Xum.  xii.  3) — at  the  waters  of  strife,  so  that  it  went  ill  with 
him  for  their  sakes.  Because  they  provoked  his  spirit,  so  that 
he  spake  unadvisedly  with  his  lips  (Ps.  cvi.  32,  33).  And  we 
are  told  how  often  the  heathens  require  of  the  missionaries 
-meekness  and  patience,  as  the  test  of  their  doctrine.     And  how 


366  NOT  EVEEY  MAN  A  TEACHER. 

will  it  be  with  thee,  O  thou  vain,  presumptuous,  self-called 
teacher,  when  such  unadvised  words  the  more  abundantlj^  fall 
from  thee,  because  thou  dost  mean  them  in  thy  heart  ?  Those 
who  cannot  love  should  not  teach.  "  But  if  ye  have  bitter  en- 
vying and  strife  in  your  hearts,  glory  not,  and  lie  not  against 
the  truth.  For  where  envying  and  strife  is,  there  is  confusion 
and  every  evil  work ; — there  is  no  favourable  culture  for  the  good 
seed.  The  fruit  of  righteousness  is  sown  in  peace  of  them  that 
make  peace"  (Jas.  iii.  14,  16,  18).  The  great  matter  before 
and  in  all  instruction  is  ever  the  gracious  exhortation.  The 
Lord  sends  His  servants — Say  unto  the  guests,  even  those  who 
would  not  come ;  say  unto  them  again  and  again,  with  kindness 
and  constraint.  The  ambassadors  in  the  stead  of  Christ,  con- 
strained by  His  love,  should  prove  by  their  own  spirit  that  God 
is  persuading  through  them ;  they  should  entreat  in  Christ's 
stead  (2  Cor.  v.  20).  This  is  the  word  of  reconciliation  in  the 
many  words  of  unweariable  love.  And  what  have  those  con- 
tentions about  words  to  do  with  this,  which  presumptuous  teachers 
are  always  so  ready  to  begin  and  continue,  and  which  are  good 
for  nothing  but  the  perverting  of  the  hearers  ?  (2  Tim.  ii.  14). 
What  have  the  school-disputings  of  men  to  do  with  this,  who 
think  that  godliness  is  gain?  (1  Tim.  vi.  5).  And  what  the 
useless  questions,  which  have  no  end  and  aim,  which  minister 
no  godly  edifying  in  faith  ?  (1  Tim.  i.  4).  But  there  are  some 
teachers  who,  while  free  from  these  faults,  are  not  free  from 
others :  with  good  intention,  and  zeal  for  God,  their  word  of 
teaching  offends  by  urging  knowledge  beyond  the  capacity  of 
their  scholars,  by  giving  them  meat  too  strong,  by  beginning 
with  what  should  be  the  end,  by  enforcing  particular  truths  to 
the  detriment  of  the  whole  truth — and  so  forth.  Is  it  not  very 
possible  in  this  way  to  injure,  instead  of  helping,  souls,  and  thus 
to  come  into  condemnation  ?  But  we  should  teach  sinners  only 
that  we  may  convert  them  from  the  error  of  their  way,  and  help 
to  save  their  souls  from  death  (Jas.  v.  20). 

If  this  is  to  be  perfectly  accomplished,  the  simple  exhortation 
must  be  followed  by  the  teaching  and  expounding  of  the  whole 
comisel  of  God,  the  leading  them  into  the  knowledge  of  the 
entire,  complete,  and  rich,  fulness  of  truth  ;  then  ask  thyself 
humbly — Am  I  sufficient  for  this?  O  how  easily  may  we 
offend  and  be  wanting  here  !    The  proud  learned  in  their  chairs, 


JAMES  III.  1,  2.  367 

the  Christian  Scribes,  who  are  called  clisputers  of  this  woricl 
(1  Cor.  i.  20),  may  think  themselves  to  be  infallible  popes  ;  but 
let  all  who  would  labour  in  the  word  and  doctrine  know  and 
remember  what  that  means — "  Study  to  show  thyself  approved 
unto  God,  a  workman  that  needeth  not  to  be  ashamed,  rigidly 
dividing  the  word  of  truth" — distributing  it  in  its  manifold 
words  !  (2  Tim.  ii.  15).  Let  him  not  dispute  about  the  contrasts 
and  paradoxes  of  words,  which  are  one  and  united  in  the  spirit 
of  their  meaning ;  let  him  strive,  according  to  circumstance 
and  opportunity,  to  minister  to  the  right  man  the  right  truth, 
according  to  the  various  gradations  of  the  experience  of  the 
people  whom  he  teaches  !  •  What  a  task  is  this,  in  which  we  all, 
in  many  respects,  fail !  If  a  man  is  deeply  conversant  with  the 
word  of  doctrine,  having  constant  practice  and  experience ;  if 
he  has  notliing  else  to  do  but  to  investigate  truth  in  Scripture 
and  in  the  hearts  of  men,  in  the  word  and  in  the  history  of  the 
kingdom  of  God  (which,  in  many  cases,  is  the  first  opener  and 
expositor  of  the  word)  ; — then  surely  the  brother  in  the  clim'ch 
should  yield  to  such  a  man,  even  though  he  confess  himself  not 
as  yet  to  be  perfect ;  modestly  considering  how  likely  he  is  him- 
self to  fail  and  offend  in  very  many  words,  not  having  such  a 
school,  such  opportunities,  such  unbroken  exercise,  and  such 
experience  !  "  We  all  fail  in  many  things" — in  this  confession 
St  James  includes  himself,  to  the  shame  of  the  self-exalting 
brethren.  Not  as  if  he  submitted  any  errors  in  his  Epistle, 
written  as  it  was  through  the  Holy  Ghost,  to  their  criticism  or 
ours  ;  but  he  only  maintains  that,  in  ordinary  Hfe  and  indepen- 
dently of  his  office,  the  perfect  man,  who  no  longer  offends  in. 
any  word,  is  nowhere  to  be  found.  The  Apostles  themselves 
were  not,  in  their  daily  and  hourly  private  life,  sinlessly  holy 
and  infallible  :  only  for  their  office  had  they  the  promise  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  to  keep  them  from  all  error.  Only  in  their  office, 
and  with  relation  to  all  the  fundamental  verities  of  their 
embassage,  was  it  said  to  the  Seventy  as  to  the  Twelve — He 
that  heareth  you,  heareth  !Me !  (Lidce  x.  16).  St  Paul  was 
sure  that  he  did  not,  like  many,  corrupt  the  word  of  God,  but 
was  as  of  sincerity,  as  of  God,  speaking  in  the  sight  of  God  in 
Christ  (2  Cor.  ii.  17).  But  he  humbly  distinguishes  the  influ- 
ence of  the  Spirit  of  God  from  that  of  his  own  spirit ;  and 
testifies — I  will  not  dare  to  speak — as  a  servant  of  Christ  and 


368  NOT  EYEIiY  3IAN  A  TEACHER. 

teacher  of  the  Gentiles — of  any  of  those  things  which  Clirist 
hath  not  wrought  by  me  (Rom.  xv.  18).  Thus  it  is  not  the 
fault  of  St  Paul,  who  rightly  taught  the  doctrines  of  faith  and 
works,  according  to  the  wisdom  given  to  him,  and  it  will  not  be 
his  condemnation,  that  from  the  beginning  his  words  have  been 
perverted  to  the  greatest  abuse.  It  is  not  the  fault  of  Luther, 
nor  will  it  be  his  condemnation,  so  far  as  he  taught  in  harmony 
with  St  Paul.  But  has  not  a  condemnation,  though  a  merciful 
one,  fallen  upon  Luther,  for  much  table-talk  to  the  offence  of 
posterity,  for  many  hard  and  bitter  words  in  his  polemical  writ- 
ings ?  Was  he  not  constrained  to  confess  upon  his  deathbed 
that  he  carried  his  doctrine  of  the  Sacrament  too  far  I — too  far, 
indeed,  as  the  evil  fruits  of  that  bitter  root  are  teaching  us  to 
this  day.  When  we  mark  this  in  such  high  examples,  how 
should  such  weak  and  insignificant  men  as  we  are  shrink  from 
any  responsibilities  which  the  Lord  Himself  does  not  impose 
upon  us,  and  His  Holy  Spirit  does  not  prepare  us  for !  It  is 
relatively  an  easy  matter  to  the  sincere  heart  of  a  brother, 
full  of  love,  to  exhort  and  admonish ;  but  hard,  perilous,  and 
resjDonsible,  is  the  proper  office  of  an  appointed  teacher.  Mark 
the  thriving  errors  of  the  scholars,  which  are  so  often  occasioned 
and  excused  by  some  slight  error  in  the  teacher,  who  has  not 
prudently  enough  divided  the  word  of  truth.  What  exaggera- 
tions and  onesided  views  are  the  residt !  Therefore,  let  those 
who  must  be — and  not  merely  would  be — teachers  see  to  it 
that  they  speah  circumspectly,  not  as  fools  but  as  wise  !  A  con- 
gregation of  Christ  needs  not  many  masters  and  teachers  ;  but 
those  whom  God  sends  and  equips  want  scholars  and  hearers. 
What  state  of  things  would  be  that  in  which  every  man  taught, 
and  no  man  listened  ?  We  shall  none  of  us  ever  cease  to  need 
to  learn  ;.  therefore  let  every  man  he  unlUng  to  he  and  remain  a 
hearer  !  Always,  first,  swift  to  hear  ;  then  slow  to  speak  !  "  Be 
sure  of  the  matter  prepared,  then  speak  thereafter ;  bind  up 
instruction,  and  then  make  answer"  (Ecclus.  xxxiii.  4).  If  this 
is  our  spirit,  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  will  give  His  demonstration 
in  our  words  ;  we  shall  then  with  all  humility  edify  and  teach 
each  other,  each  according  to  the  measure  of  the  gift  from 
above  ;  and  then  shall  we  escape  the  condemnation' which  awaits 
presumption  and  pride. 


JAMES  III.  3-12.  3G9 


XIX. 

THE  SINS  OF  THE  TONGUE. 

(Ch.  iii.  3-12.) 

Behold,  we  put  bits  in  the  horses'  mouths,  that  they  may  obey  us  ;  and  we 
turn  about  their  whole  body.  Behold  also  the  ships,  which,  though  they 
be  so  gi'eat,  and  are  driven  of  fierce  mnds,  yet  are  they  turned  about 
with  a  very  small  helm,  whithersoever  the  governor  hsteth.  Even  so  the 
tongue  is  a  little  member,  and  boasteth  great  things.  Behold  how  great 
a  wood  a  little  fire  kindleth  !  And  the  tongue  is  a  fire,  a  world  of  iniquity : 
so  is  the  tongue  among  oiu:  members,  that  it  defileth  the  whole  body,  and 
setteth  on  fire  the  wheel  of  nature ;  and  it  is  set  on  fire  of  heU.  For 
every  kind  of  beasts,  and  of  birds,  and  of  serpents,  and  of  things  in  the 
sea,  is  tamed,  and  hath  been  tamed,  of  mankind  :  But  the  tongue  can  no 
man  tame  ;  it  is  an  unruly  evil,  fuU  of  deadly  poison.  Therewith  bless 
we  God,  even  the  Father ;  and  therewith  curse  we  men,  which  are  made 
after  the  simihtude  of  God.  Out  of  the  same  mouth  proceedeth  blessing 
and  cursing.  My  brethren,  these  things  ought  not  so  to  be.  Doth  a 
fountain  send  forth  at  the  same  hole  sweet  water  and  bitter  ?  Can  the 
fig-tree,  my  brethren,  bear  ohve-berries  ?  either  a  vine,  figs  ?  so  can  no 
fountain  both  yield  salt  water  and  fresh. 

"But  if  any  man  offend  not  in  any  loorcC^ — seemed  to  set 
the  speaking  over  against  the  doing,  as  the  lesser  thing ;  and 
to  make  false  words  the  last  and  least  failure  in  jjerfection. 
When,  however,  St  James  continues — "He  that  ruleth  the 
tongue,  he,  or  only  he,  can  also  govern  the  whole  hody,"  the 
matter  is  reversed.  The  failing  or  not  failing  in  words  is  plainly 
regarded  as  the  decisive,  distinctive,  mark  of  our  self-gover]i- 
ment,  and  of  our  religious  condition  generally.  To  tame  and 
bring  into  subjection  to  the  spirit  the  Avhole  body,  the  whole 
complex  of  our  inborn  sins  and  lusts,  is  the  duty  of  us  all ;  but 
it  is  specially  required  of  those  who  come  forward  as  teachers 
of  others — lest  they  themselves  be  castaways  !  (1  Cor.  ix.  27). 
But  on  that  very  account  they  should  practise  and  exhibit  it,  in 
the  taming  of  their  tongues.  St  James  has  from  the  beginning 
dwelt  upon  this  main  point  (ch.  i.  26,  19)  ;  he  now  gives  a 
new  and  important  discourse  upon  the  subject.  Let  us  carefully 
study  his  pattern-sermon  upon  this  great  and  profound  theme: 

2  a 


370  THE  SINS  or  THE  TONGUE. 

considering  the  importance  which  he  attaches  to  the  little  mem- 
ber ;  the  extent  and  depth  of  its  unrighteousness  as  it  is  here 
traced ;  and  finally,  the  wisdom  which  alone  will  save  us  from 
the  sins  of  the  tongue. 

Such  is  the  wonderful  significance  attached  here  to  the  words 
which  the  little  tongue  speaketh,  that  many  are  disposed  to 
think  it  an  exaggeration,  and  to  regard  St  James  himself  as 
offending,  through  his  zeal,  in  these  high  words  and  figm'es. 
But  what  he  says  is  the  pure  truth ;  uttered  so  emphatically  in 
order  to  shame  our  thoughtlessness  on  the  matter,  and  to  con- 
demn the  gentle  strain  of  preaching  on  the  sins  of  the  tongue 
wliieh  is  so  current.  He  begins  wisely  with  allusion  to  some- 
thing very  acceptable  to  the  ears  of  proud  man — giving  its 
glory  to  that  might  and  skill  of  mankind  which  subjugates  and 
rules  so  wide  a  domain.  But  he  refers  to  this,  only  in  reality 
to  humble  us  the  more !  Behold,  we  put  bits  into  the  horses* 
mouths,  so  that  they  obey  us,  and  we  can  turn  their  whole  body. 
The  strong  and  noble  horse — the  symbol  of  all  animal  nature 
which  man  has  subjected  to  his  service,  since  it  is  not  our 
greater  power  which  reduces  him,  but  our  understanding  how 
to  apply  the  insti'ument  of  our  dominion  in  the  right  place. 
How  does  the  lightest  movement  of  our  hand  turn  the  whole 
animal,  so  that  the  rider  upon  his  horse  seems  to  make  one 
whole  with  him  ;  the  horse  being  almost  like  an  addition  to  the 
man's  own  body !  Behold  also  the  ships,  which  are  so  great, 
and  are  moreover  driven  of  fierce  winds,  are  turned  by  a  very 
small  rudder  whithersoever  he  will  who  is  the  steersman.  This, 
again,  is  an  example  of  man's  art  in  machinery  for  reducing 
to  subjection  inanimate  nature,  and  the  veiy  elements.  We 
ourselves  have  made  the  ships  so  great,  and  at  the  same  time 
with  so  much  art ;  but  St  James  would  now  make  prominent  the 
navigating  art,  which  not  only  uses  tlie  strong  winds  in  their 
natural  direction,  and  not  merely  withstands  them,  but  can  even  in 
some  degree  make  them  subservient  to  an  almost  opposite  course. 

Wind  and  sea  thus  become  obedient  to  men ;  and  now 
steam  on  the  ocean  has  introduced  tlie  service  of  a  third  ele- 
ment, that  of  fire.  What  now  do  we  expect  naturally  to  fol- 
low ?  Obviously,  the  declaration  that  we  ought  also  to  be  able 
to  rule  ourselves,  and  our  tongue  at  least,  which  is  so  small  a 
n.ember !     But  St  James  strikingly  changes  the  point  of  the 


JAMES  III.  3-12.  371 

comparison — So  is  also  the  tongue — a  little  bit,  a  little  rudder  ; 
that  is,  the  tongue  rules  rather  the  course  of  men  and  of  the 
world,  our  tongue  drives  us,  instead  of  being,  as  it  should  be,  in 
our  own  hand  and  power  ;  yea,  alas,  it  turns  and  steers  us  hither 
and  thither,  whithersoever  he  will  wJio  hy  it  rules  over  us!  So 
important  is  St  James'  view  of  the  little  member  which  doeth 
such  great  things.  Literally,  It  boasteth  great  things,  speaking 
proudly  and  presumptuously.  This  has  always  been  true  among 
all  classes,  from  Daniel's  beast  with  the  little  horn,  and  the 
mouth  speaking  great  things  (Dan.  vii.  8) — and  the  host  of  the 
rebellious  who  speak  proud  things,  and  who  say,  With  our  tongues 
\Aill  we  prevail !  (Ps.  xii.  3,  4) — down  to  the  most  insignificant 
rebel  who  has  a  mouth  as  daring  as  a  little  antichrist.  There 
is  a  certain  truth  and  right  in  this  boasting  of  the  tongue — St 
James  means — for  the  little  member  worketh  great  things,  for 
good  as  well  as  evil.  The  importance  and  power  of  the  ivord 
in  human  nature  appertains  to  the  image  of  God  in  which  man 
was  created  :  the  word  of  God  created  the  worlds,  and  by  His 
mighty  word  He  upholdeth  all  things  (Heb.  i.  3).  And  so  the 
preached  word  is  the  seed  of  our  regeneration  ;  and  the  brethren 
are  commended  to  the  word  of  grace  for  their  perfect  edification 
unto  the  final  inheritance  (Acts  xx.  32).  The  word  of  grace  and 
tnith  in  human  lips  founded  the  church  of  Christ,  and  the  same 
word  governs  and  builds  it  up ;  the  word  of  testimony  and  con- 
fession works  its  reformation  ;  even  as  it  is  wasted  and  hindered 
by  words  of  error.  Everywhere  and  all-mighty  is  the  influence 
of  the  word.  They  who  so  vehemently  demand  freedom  of 
speech,  know  well  the  power  of  what  they  want.  How  great  is 
the  power  of  human  orations  over  masses  of  men !  How  can 
one  single  word  of  appropriate  truth  light  up  darkened  doc- 
trine ;  how  powerful  is  one  single  word  of  love  from  the  heart 
to  exhort,  to  strengthen,  to  encourage,  and  to  stimulate !  "  Shall 
not  the  dew  assuage  the  heat?  so  is  a  word  better  than  a  gift" 
(Ecclus.  xviii.  16).  Again,  what  might  has  a  Avicked  word  to 
blight,  to  mislead,  to  offend,  to  wound !  You  may  ask,  whether 
there  are  not  words  of  mere  indifference,  of  no  significance  for 
evil  or  good,  and  which  made  up  the  far  greater  part  of  our 
daily  conversation.  Not  so ;  there  is  no  indifferent  action,  and 
there  are  no  indifferent  words.  Because  of  supposed  vain  words 
the  wrath  of  God  cometh  upon  the  children  of  disobedience 


372  THE  SINS  OF  THE  TONGUE. 

(Eph.  V.  G).  Unspiritual  and  loose  babbling  lias  its  effect ;  it 
strengthens  and  confirms  the  mind  from  which  it  comes — it 
increases  unto  more  ungodliness  (2  Tim.  ii.  16).  Tlie  word, 
in  reality,  always  proceeds  either  from  a  good  or  an  evil  mind ; 
it  always  carries  in  it  its  proportionate  influence,  either  upon 
others  or  ourselves ;  for  it  is  generally  the  channel  of  all  spirit- 
ual power,  utterance,  and  influence  in  humanity. 

The  little  member  with  the  great  things  which  depend  upon 
it  and  spring  from  it,  is  like  a  little  fire,  which  kindles  a  great 
wood :  St  James  says  this  specially  concerning  the  evil.  Mark 
the  short,  scarcely  uttered  word  of  wrath,  hatred,  or  bitterness, 
and  what  enmity  it  may  excite !  A  thoughtful  word  of  mock- 
ery— what  offence,  and  what  endless  mischief  may  proceed 
from  it !  A  little  word  of  enticement  and  temptation  may  open 
the  door  to  an  untold  career  of  sin !  An  impure  witticism  may 
kindle  the  flames  of  hateful  lust  with  all  its  hateful  deeds  ! 
What  boundless  mischief  is  wrought  in  the  world  by  sinful  lips, 
iinguarded  sayings,  words  of  hatred  and  of  strife  !  "  A  back- 
biting tongue  hath  pulled  down  strong  cities,  and  overthrown 
the  houses  of  great  men.  Many  have  fallen  by  the  edge  of  the 
sword ;  but  not  so  many  as  have  fallen  by  the  tongue"  (Ecclus. 
xxviii.  14,  18).  Envious  tongues  confound  and  ruin  churches, 
overthrow  states,  lay  waste  peoples  and  lands.  Look  at  that 
little  member,  the  tongue;  is  the  word  which  it  utters  to  be 
lightly  esteemed  ?  Think,  moreover,  of  the  tongue  of  our  times, 
of  the  pen  and  the  might  of  books  and  jom'nals — might,  ala's  ! 
too  often  in  the  service  of  evil.  He  who  throws  the  sparks  of  his 
words  into  the  wood  of  the  people  cannot  say — What  have  I  then 
done  ?  Z  have  only  spoken  or  written  !  The  inflammable  wood  is 
always  and  everywhere,  in  natural  humanity,  prepared  for  the 
sparks  of  falsehood  and  sin.  "  What  shall  the  false  tongue  do  to 
thee  ?  What  shall  it  profit  thee "?  It  is  like  sharp  arrows  of  the 
mighty,  like  fire  in  junipei"- woods"  (Ps.  cxx.  3,  4).  The  furthest- 
reaching,  the  most  internal  and  spiritual,  the  most  influential  in- 
fluence of  man  upon  men  is  so  obviously  connected  with  the  tongue, 
that  St  James  needs  only  to  refer  to  it  with  a  Behold,  just  as  to 
the  horses,  ships,  and  woods; — not  so  much  in  the  acts  of  men  is  it 
seen,  as  in  the  words  which  explain,  and  accompany,  excite,  and 
produce  those  acts.  Regard  the  whole  world  or  mankind  in  all 
its  doing  and  pursuits :  in  words  its  spirit  and  life  is  first  dis- 


JAMES  III.  3-12.  373 

tiiictly  shoicn ;  in  words  its  deepest  activity  moves ;  by  words  is 
tlie  traffic  of  spirits  in  truth  and  falsehood  conducted,  and  right 
or  "wrong  done  by  man  to  man.  And  alas !  in  the  world  as 
world,  alas !  in  fallen  human  nature  generally,  there  is  now  only 
iniquity ;  thu.s  the  tongue,  and  the  fire  evervAvhere  kindled  in 
the  great  wood  which  proceeds  from  it,  is  a  icorld  fidl  of  ini- 
quity. This  is  no  exaggerating  expression,  but  the  simple  and 
solemn  truth :  the  tongue  of  men,  speaking  evil  and  falsehood, 
is  the  proper  instrument  and  member  in  the  great  body  of  hu- 
manity from  which  the  truth-restraining  fire  of  unrighteousness 
proceeds,  which  fills  the  whole  world  with  iniquity,  and  thus  is 
itself  a  little  world  of  iniquity.  To  that  tend  the  lightly-con- 
sidered sins  of  the  tongue  ! 

Whence,  then,  this  world  full  of  unrighteousness  in  the  tongue, 
which  is  only  a  piece  of  flesh  in  the  mouth  ?  Let  us  now  hear  how 
profoundly  St  James  bases  this  evil !  He  is  not  like  the  moralists, 
Avho  never  press  into  the  internal  principle  of  human  behaviour, 
Avho  never  go  beyond  the  superficial  work  and  word ;  he  does  not 
preach  like  the  preachers  who  have  only  to  say — Do  not  thus,  or 
speak  not  so !  He  knows  well  that  the  same  human  nature,  which 
can  tame  and  subject  so  many  things,  cannot  of  itself  tame  the 
tongue.  For  in  its  word  bubbles  incessantly  the  outflow  of  an 
abyss  in  the  heart ;  or  a  whirling  fire  burns  round  about,  which 
ascends  from  an  internal  hell.  So  is  the  tongue  among  our  mem- 
bers :  the  tongue  it  is  which  defiles  the  whole  body,  and  kindles 
the  ivheel  of  nature — if  and  because  it  is  itself  kindled  of  the^rg 
of  hell.  So  deep  lies  the  gromid  of  the  evil.  There  is  a  ticofold 
impulse  of  speaking  and  acting,  a  twofold  fire  which  bui'ns  upon 
the  tongue  of  man,  and  by  it  can  enkindle  flame.  The  good 
fire  came  down  on  the  day  of  Pentecost  from  above,  from  the 
Father  of  Lights;  but  in  the  depth  of  human  nature  there 
burns  another.  The  same  St  James  who,  in  ch.  i.  17,  distin- 
guished the  above  and  below,  the  pm-e  lights  and  fixed  stars  of 
the  original  world  from  the  planets  revolving  in  alternate  sha- 
dows, thus  profoundly  through  the  Holy  Ghost  anticipating  a 
physical  knowledge  scarcely  even  yet  thoroughly  understood, 
utters  here  a  similar  mystery.  Luther  did  not  understand  the 
expression,  and  therefore  explained  at  once — The  tongue  kindles 
all  our  conduct.  But  the  word  is,  literally,  the  loheel  or  the  re- 
volution of  nature,  that  is,  of  human  natui'e ;  so  that  the  whole 


374  THE  sms  OF  the  tongue. 

world  of  spirit  and  thought  in  the  natural  man,  in  his  corruption, 
moves  towards  unrighteousness,  and  is  whirled  round  by  mighty 
im^Dulse,  like  as  it  were  burning  windmills — if  such  a  simple 
figure  may  be  allowed.  Is  it  not  so  with  the  tongue  once  set  in 
motion,  that  speedily  the  whole  man  is  hurried  away  by  his  own 
mouth  1  And  where  burns,  properly  speaking,  this  fire  which 
presses  upward  to  the  tongue?  In  hell,  for  there  is  the  evil 
fire.  But  where  is  hell  ?  According  to  Scriptural  figure,  based 
upon  the  reality  of  nature,  in  the  interior  of  the  earth,  where 
it  remains  from  the  former  fall  of  Satan,  the  first  occupier  of 
the  earth ;  and  this  fire  is  at  the  same  time  the  energy  which 
urges  the  rotation  of  the  revolving  planet.  All  tliis  St  James 
knew,  and  discerns  in  nature  the  figure  of  the  world  of  spirit ; 
he  finds  the  same  reproduced  in  man  as  in  a  little  world.  In 
Ms  interior,  in  the  ground  and  abyss  of  his  heart,  is  hell :  there 
bm-ns  the  dark  fire  of  contradiction  to  the  truth  of  God,  of  the 
lie  derived  from  the  first  liar,  of  wrath  and  hatred,  of  the  vam 
lust  which  idolatrously  goes  out  toward  the  creature.  Sii'ach 
from  afar  had  a  presentiment  of  the  truth  :  "  The  heart  of  the 
foolish  is  like  the  wheel  of  a  cart ;  and  his  thoughts  are  like  a 
rolling  axletree"  (Ecclus.  xxxiii.  5).  But  St  James  here  calls 
it  a  fire,  a  hellish  fire,  that  drives  this  rotation ;  and  shows  us  in 
the  tongue  what  may  be  called  the  fly-wheel  of  all  the  revolu- 
tions of  om*  natural  being  in  unrighteousness.  Thus  stands,  or 
is  fixed,  the  tongue  among  our  members  !  "  An  ungodly  man 
diggeth  up  evil :  and  in  his  lips  there  is  as  a  bm'ning  fire"  (Prov. 
xvi.  27).  It  is  not,  indeed,  the  mouth  that  does  all,  for  it  is  first 
kindled  from  the  heart ;  and  yet  it  is  the  mouth,  for  the  way 
of  the  thoughts  into  acts  in  the  world  without  is  through  the 
mouth;  Out  of  the  lieart  proceed  the  evil  thoughts  which  be- 
come wicked  works,  false  witness,  and  blasphemy;  and  these 
are  the  things  which  defile  a  man  :  what  proceedeth  out  of  the 
mouth  defileth  the  man  (Matt.  xv.  18-20).  So  said  the  Lord 
Ilimself,  and  so,  after  Him,  says  St  James  :  the  tongue  defileth 
the  whole  body,  it  fills  the  life  and  the  walk  with  sm  and  guilt. 
It  is  not  enough  to  keep  ourselves  unspotted  from  the  world 
without ;  the  tongue  also  must  be  held  in  check,  for  it  is  also 
a  world  of  unrighteousness.  Is  it  not  true  that  the  words,  them- 
selves the  outbreaking  sin  of  the  heart,  always,  when  unre- 
strained, m-ge  us  to  still  greater  sin  ?     The  wheel  of  nature 


JAMES  III.  3-12.  375 

rotates,  man  talks  himself  into  evil,  into  Avrath  or  lust,  into  lie 
or  vanity;  he  prates  himself  all  the  more  firmly  in  the  sin, 
against  the  works  of  which  he  would  fain  guard ;  the  tongue 
sooner  or  later  runs  away  with  his  whole  man.  As  thou  art, 
thou  speakest ;  but  it  is  equally  true  that,  as  thou  speakest  and 
continuest  to  speak,  thou  wilt  live  and  walk.  It  begins  with  the 
tongue ;  but  the  fire  soon  spreads,  and  unrighteousness  spreads 
widely  around.  How  often,  nay,  in  most  instances  of  fall,  have 
we  to  say — Had  I  but  restrained  the  first  outbm'st  in  word ! 
Had  I  but  tamed  my  tongue !  It  should  not  be  so  wdth  the 
tongue,  St  James  afterwards  says ;  but  here  beforehand  he 
attests  the  mournful  truth,  that,  while  every  nature  of  beasts, 
and  of  flying  fowl,  and  creeping  things  such  as  poisonous 
serpents,  and  the  wonderful  creatures  of  the  sea,  are  tamed 
and  have  been  tamed  by  the  human  nature, — the  tongue  can 
no  man  tame,  that  restless,  unrestrained  evil,  full  of  deadly 
poison !  Who  can  put  bits  into  the  mouths  of  us  wild  horses  ? 
Only  the  Lord  God  who  speaks  of  the  bit  and  bridle  in  the 
psalm  (Ps.  xxxii.  9).  No  man  can  tame  the  Kttle  tongue,  al- 
though vaunted  hmnan  natm'e  can  do  so  much.  All  the  power, 
wildness,  and  poison  of  all  kinds  of  animals  either  has  been 
reduced  to  submission,  or  will  be  so  ;  this  universal  taming  pro- 
ceeds further  and  fm'ther,  as  St  James  declares  and  predicts. 
But  of  what  avail  is  this  to  poor  humanity,  if  it  is  not  of  itself 
capable  of  a  word  for  righteousness  and  truth !  But  so  it  is 
ever}^vliere  in  the  world  :  The  tongue  can  no  man  tame  ;  not 
in  others,  that  he  may  stop  their  evil  mouth  with  teaching,  ex- 
hortation, rebuke,  and  authority ;  nor  yet  even  in  himself.  After 
all  the  progress  of  the  inventions  of  man's  power  and  art,  the 
world  remains,  alas !  full  of  unrighteousness  ;  yea,  he  that  could 
seize  it  by  the  tongue,  and  keep  that  still,  would  be  the  only 
restrainer  of  the  world.  An  unceasing,  untamed  or  untameable, 
evil  monster  is  this  tongue,  after  the  manner  of  serpents  full 
of  deadly  poison.  "  They  have  sharpened  their  tongues  like  a 
serpent ;  adders'  poison  is  under  their  lips"  (Ps.  cxl.  3).  We 
know,  indeed,  well  what  this  poison  is  ;  and  that  old  Serpent, 
as  the  warning  symbol  of  whom  natural  serpents  have  poison 
under  their  tongues.  Thus  human  nature  is  put  to  shame,  be- 
cause it  has  fallen  into  a  w^orse  and  hellish  natm'e.  In  our 
conflict  with,  not  the  sea-monsters,  but  monsters  of  the  abyss 


376  THE  SINS  OF  THE  TONGUE. 

whicli  have  ruined  and  poisoned  us,  there  is  more  than  the  mere 
contest  of  nature  with  nature. 

The  best  thing  in  this  evil  is,  however,  that  it  does  not  con- 
ceal itself ;  that  the  poison,  otherwise  concealed,  flows  out  most 
assuredly  through  the  tongue,  and  reveals  its  nature  even  as  the 
fruit  reveals  the  nature  of  the  tree.  "  O  generation  of  vipers, 
how  can  ye,  being  evil,  speak  good  things  ?  for  out  of  the  abun- 
dance of  the  heart  the  mouth  speaketh !"  (Matt.  xii.  33,  34). 
This  word  of  our  Lord  remains  for  ever  true.  Look  steadily  at 
those  honour-able  and  virtuous  people,  who  at  least  think  them- 
selves such,  without  having  had  the  new  and  good  tree  implanted 
in  them ;  give  steady  heed  to  Avhat  their  tongue  speaks  and  does, 
and  mark  how  their  words  testify  against  them,  and  how  they 
themselves  are  continually  misled  and  defiled  by  their  own 
tongues  !  When  that  proud  tongue  boasts — /  can  keep  silence, 
or  disguise  my  meaning — verily  that  is  the  one  thing  which  is 
too  great  for  it.  The  aptest  hypocrite  cannot  altogether  accom- 
plish that ;  it  cannot  be  that  his  deception  shall  never  be 
betrayed  by  a  single  word ;  the  heart  must  overflow,  and  the 
hell  within  sometimes  burn  upon  the  tongue.  What  we  speak 
is,  and  must  ever  be,  the  most  direct,  most  certain,  and  most 
unrestrained  outflow  of  the  heart.  And  what  now  finally  fol- 
lows in  St  James'  discourse  against  the  sins  of  the  tongue  ? 
He  has  shown  us  whither  they  tend,  in  the  ^vorld  full  of  unright- 
eousness; and  whence  they  come,  from  the  internal  abyss  of 
coi'ruption.  It  is  now  very  easy  to  understand  how  alone  we 
may  be  saved  therefrom. 

Hear  and  understand  aright,  how  wisely  he  gives  the  only 
right  counsel  for  our  help  !  Out  of  the  same  mouth  proceed 
blessing  and  cursing ;  that  should  not  be,  for  doth  the  fountain 
send  forth  from  the  same  hole  sweet  water  and  bitter?  St 
James  once  more  points  us  to  within,  as  in  the  first  chapter,  for 
the  source  of  good  and  evil ;  we  should  not  undertake  with 
fruitless  pains  to  stop  the  liole  of  the  unceasing  outflow,  but  we 
should  seek  thoroughly  to  cleanse  the  fountain  and  soui'ce  itself. 
"  A  good  man  out  of  the  good  treasure  of  the  heart  bringeth 
forth  good  things ;  and  an  evil  man  out  of  the  evil  treasure 
bringeth  forth  evil  things"  (Matt.  xii.  35).  O  man,  thou  art 
created  after  the  image  of  God,  so  that  thou  canst  subdue  by 
thy  nature  all  inferior  creatures  and  natures,  so  that  even  in  the 


JAMES  III.  3-12.  377 

wicked  power  of  thy  loord  there  is  manifested  a  perversion  of 
the  Divine  image.  Should  not  all  creatures  praise  their  Crea- 
tor ;  and  how  much  more  thoii  thy  God,  in  whose  image  thou 
wast  formed  ?  There  are  only  two  kinds  of  service  and  use  of 
the  tongue,  only  two  kinds  of  words  and  works,  intention  and 
act — either  the  blessing  of  God,  or  the  cursing  of  man  !  We 
might  have  expected  to  hear — Or  the  blaspheming  of  the  same 
God ;  and  so  it  is  in  its  ground.  But,  because  St  James  is 
speaking  to  brethren,  he  does  not  expressly  mention  the  direct 
and  o^^en  blasphemy  against  God ;  nevertheless,  he  gives  it  to 
be  understood  that  he  who  injures  and  dishonoiu's  man,  similarly 
sins  against  the  image  of  God.  His  words  must  be  regarded  as 
meaning,  that  all  which  sei'ves  to  the  honour  of  God  may  be 
called  the  blessing  God ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  that  all  scorn 
and  injury  of  our  neighbour,  especially  in  words,  may  be  called 
cursing,  the  utterance  of  wicked  and  bitter  words.  He  who 
praises  God  with  the  tongue,  but  not  with  the  heart,  who  will 
bear  testimony  to  the  truth  without  purity  of  soul  in  its  obe- 
dience, lies  against  the  truth  (ver.  14)  and  blasphemes.  He 
who  flatters  his  neighbour,  like  the  men  who  are  diligent  in  lies, 
blessing  with  their  mouth  but  cm'sing  inwardly  (Ps.  Ixii.  4)  — 
his  1;ongue  is  a  cursins  tonorie  all  the  more  on  that  account. 
As  Solomon  says,  "  He  that  blesseth  his  friend  with  a  loud 
voice,  rising  early  in  the  morning,  it  shall  be  counted  a  curse  to 
him"  (Prov.  xxvii.  14).  With  the  tongue  bless  xoe,  with  the 
tongiTe  curse  we  !  this  St  James  means  first  of  collective  huma- 
nity  :  we  men  thus  use  the  tongue ;  some  bless  God  with  it, 
others  injure  their  neighbours  with  it.  On  which  side  do  you 
stand  ?  Have  you  ever  yet  in  truth,  and  from  the  groimd  of  the 
licart,  praised  God  in  prayer  or  thanksgiving,  in  confession  or 
saving  testimony  ?  Or  does  the  fire  of  pride  and  wrath,  of  bit- 
terness, scorn,  and  injury  to  your  neighbour,  biu'n  in  you  as  oft 
as  your  tongue  has  free  course  f  Do  you  scorn  especially  the 
renewed  image  of  God  in  His  children,  speaking  all  kinds  of 
evil  of  the  disciples  of  Christ  in  your  enmity  against  truth  and 
righteousness  ? 

We,  dear  brethren,  should  certainly  only  bless  God  the 
Father,  who  hath  begotten  us  again  to  be  first-fniits  of  His 
creatu.res ;  and  only  bless  our  fellow-redeemed  with  the  mercy 
received  from  above.     But  now  St  James  comes  closer  to  us, 


378  THE  SINS  OF  THE  TONGUE. 

when  lie  continues  with  sharper  expression — Out  of  the  same 
one  mouth  cometh  blessing  and  cursing.  Ye  who  would  be 
teachers  of  others,  test  and  humble  your  own  souls !  But, 
among  the  brethren  generally,  where  is  the  one  to  whom  this 
does  not  more  or  less  apply?  Fearful,  lamentable,  and  un- 
natural is  it  that  the  words  of  God's  praise  should  mingle  and 
alternate — and  within  brief  intervals  out  of  the  same  mouth — 
with  wicked  and  sinful  words  !  Is  it  not  so  ?  Shall  we  repel 
St  James'  saying,  and  retort  his  own  previous  word — He  that 
offendeth  in  no  word  would  be  a  perfect  man ;  but  we  in  many 
things  offend  all,  and  it  cannot  be  otherwise? — My  h^ethren, 
these  things  ought  not  so  to  be!  is  the  inexorable  reply  with 
which  he  anticipates  us,  and  it  is  perfectly  justified.  There 
may  seem  to  you  no  counsel  for  help  in  this  hard — It  ought 
not  to  he  I  But  mark  the  deep  wisdom  with  which  he  speaks ; 
take  in  the  conclusion  of  the  sentence,  and  understand  that  he 
gives  such  counsel  as  brethren  ought  to  be  able  to  receive.  If 
the  praise  of  God  cometh  out  of  thy  mouth,  dost  thou  not  know 
lohence  that  flows  ?  Mark  that  from  the  same  source,  and  no 
other,  it  should  and  can  come,  that  thou  mayest  put  an  end  to 
the  curse  which  proceeds  from  the  same  mouth.  If  God  has 
begun  to  heal  thee,  a  poisoned  sinner,  He  will  not  forsake  His 
work,  but  help  thee  still.  The  tongue  can  no  man  tame  by 
human  nature  and  power ;  but  can  no  Christian  tame  it,  no  child 
born  of  God  ?  Could  not  St  James  himself  tame  his  own ; 
must  he  also  curse  ? 

So  shall  we  first  understand  aright  the  concluding  word 
with  its  question,  which  says  more  than  it  expresses,  and  re- 
quires from  the  wise  the  right  answer.  From  one  spring  do 
sweet  waters  and  bitter  come?  Can  a  fig-tree  bear  olive- 
berries,  or  a  vine  bear  figs  ?  So  a  salt  spring  cannot  give  siveet 
water!  that  is — No  inferior  creature  or  .nature  contradicts  its 
own  kind  and  propriety ;  but  man,  the  noblest  of  all  creatm-es, 
is  such  a  self-contradiction,  and  therein  approves,  as  his  deep 
corruption,  so  also  his  high  vocation.  The  image  of  God  has 
been  fearfully  disordered.  But,  again,  if  there  is  in  thee,  an 
evil  man,  something  that  is  good,  some  certain  genuine  praise 
of  God  coexisting  with  the  still  remaining  outgrowth  of  evil, 
it  is  the  gt^ace  of  God  in  thee ;  the  Lord  hath  cast  the  tree  into 
the  bitter  waters,  as  there  in  ISIarah,  and  given  thee,  as  there. 


JAMES  III.  3-12.  379 

the  promise — I  am  the  Lord  that  healeth  thee!  (Ex.  xv.  23-26). 
However  great  the  sin,  God's  grace  is  mightier;  but  shall  we 
count  our  evil  slight,  and  not  give  all  diligence  to  be  entirely 
healed  ?  God  forbid !  It  is  both  our  consolation  and  our  warn- 
ino;  to  know,  and  it  is  the  most  effectual  evangelical  stimulant 
to  holiness,  that,  although  alas !  good  and  evil  more  or  less  flow 
together  from  within,  tliey  do  not  both  come  from  one  fountain ; 
that  grace  is  mightier  than  sin,  the  Divine  nature  shall  and  will 
most  assuredly  tame  and  restrain  thy  human  nature.  He  that 
says — This  should  not  be !  will  make  His  law  within  us  a  law 
of  liberty  and  life,  and  give  us  strength  to  keep  it. 

Sigh  not  out  then,  brethren,  with  the  son  of  Sirach  your 
Avishes — "  0  that  I  could  set  a  watch  before  my  mouth,  and  a 
seal  of  wisdom  upon  my  lips,  that  I  fall  not  suddenly  by  them, 
and  that  my  tongue  destroy  me  not !  (Ecclus.  xxii.  27).  O  that 
I  could ! — but  I  cannot,  no  man  can."  But  let  it  be  thy  earnest 
])urpose,  in  the  renewed  will  of  thy  new  nature — "  I  said  I 
will  take  heed  to  my  ways,  that  I  sin  not  with  my  tongue  ;  I 
Avill  muzzle  my  mouth !"  (Ps.  xxxix.  2).  And  then,  which  is  the 
great  concern,  let  thy  watching  become  prayer  for  the  strength 
of  God- — ''  Set  a  watch,  O  Lord,  before  my  mouth  ;  keep  the 
door  of  my  lips.  Incline  not  my  heart  to  any  evil  thing,  but 
only  to  the  good  !"  (Ps.  cxli.  3,  4).  Then  that  which  is  impos- 
sible is  done,  if  not  at  once,  yet  more  and  more  unto  perfection  ; 
then  that  perfection  is  constantly  brought  nearer ;  the  evil 
fountain  is  gradually  dried  up,  the  stronger  the  good  fountain 
flows.  And  as,  in  a  condition  of  nature,  the  untamed  tongue 
seduces  the  heart,  so  in  a  condition  of  grace  the  taming  of  the 
tongue — that  is  to  say  by  watchfulness  and  earnest  prayer — is 
exceedingly  helpful  to  growth  in  the  Divine  natm^e ;  for  thus 
can  man  in  truth,  being  under  the  power  of  grace,  stop  the  flow 
of  nature  and  dry  up  its  fountain.  He  who  makes  this  his 
earnest  iand  persevering  endeavour,  will  know  by  sure  ex- 
perience that  with  us  also  the  mouth  is  the  proper  place  in 
which  to  place  the  bit  which  curbs  tlie  old  Adam;  that  the 
tongue  is  in  sanctification  the  rudder  which  steers  the  whole  life. 
May  the  Lord  help  us  more  and  more,  that  we  may  not  be 
driven  of  flerce  winds  without,  but  of  His  Holy  Spirit  who 
governeth  us ;  that  not  the  fire  of  hell,  but  the  fire  of  heaven, 
may  urge  oui'  tongues !     Let  us  ever  seek  His  help  with  the 


380    GENTLENESS  OF  TRUE  WISDOM,  AND  WRATH  OF  FALSE. 

determination  of  our.  renewed  nature — Praise  the  Lord,  O  my 
soul,  and  all  that  is  within  me !  Praise  the  Lord,  my  tongue, 
and  all  that  goeth  out  of  me !  Praise  the  Lord,  my  whole  life, 
and  every  motion  ! 


XX. 

THE  GENTLENESS  OF  TRUE  WISDOM,  AND  THE  WKATH 

OF  FALSE. 

(Ch.  iii.  13-16.) 

Who  is  a  wise  man,  and  endued  with  knowledge  among  you  ?  let  him  show 
out  of  a  good  conversation  his  works  with  meekness  of  wisdom.  But 
if  ye  have  bitter  envjdng  and  strife  in  your  hearts,  glory  not,  and  lie  not 
against  the  truth.  This  wisdom  descendeth  not  from  above,  but  is 
earthy,  sensual,  devilish.  For  where  envying  and  strife  is,  there  is  con- 
fusion, and  every  evil  work. 

St  James  teaches  us  in  his  Epistle  what  is  genuine  faith ; 
and  for  their  sake  who  say  that  they  have  faith,  but  have  not 
the  works  by  which  true  faith  approves,  confirms,  and  consum- 
mates itself.  What,  then,  have  these  men  else  in  them? 
There  must  be  something  on  which  they  pride  themselves,  and 
on  which  they  rely.  And  that  is  their  dead  knoivledge — or, 
as  they  also  say,  the  discernment  of  the  truth,  of  which  they  say 
that  it  is  faith.  But  this  knowledge,  the  more  hollow  and 
empty  it  is,  the  more  it  swells  out  in  words :  therefoi'c,  naturally, 
with  vain,  presumptuous,  and  ungrounded  words,  St  James  has 
esj)ecially  now  to  do.  Whatever  is  wanting  in  works,  these 
words  must  supply,  taking  their  place ;  instead  of  walking  in 
obedience  they  have  their  so-called  knowledge,  instead  of  life 
they  have  doctrine,  instead  of  the  reality  the  appearance.  The 
less  disposed  a  man  is  to  be  taught,  the  more  forward  he  is  to 
teach  others ;  the  slower  his  heart  is  to  hear  the  Avord  of  truth, 
the  SYi^if ter  does  his  tongue  run  away  with  its  sayings.  Hence, 
it  may  be  observed  that  St  James  has  given  us  specifically,  in 
ch.  i.  19,  the  proper  theme  of  his  Epistle,  which  he  then  pro- 
ceeds to  expound.  Slow  to  speak! — this  has  been  from  the 
bej^innincr  of  ch.  iii.  his  text.     Similarlv,  as  he  had  added  at  the 


JAMES  III.  13-16.  381 

first — And  slow  to  wrath ! — and,  as  he  had  hinted  at  this  in  the 
condemned  ciu'sinij  which  comes  from  the  same  mouth  as  the 
blessing,  he  now  proceeds  more  directly  to  speak  of  it,  and  de- 
nounces envying  and  strife,  wars  and  fightings,  evil  speaking 
and  judging.  This  extends  to  ch,  iv.  12,  when  he  again  i^eturns 
more  generally  to  the  "  proud  boasting ; "  and,  finally,  to  the 
opposite  patience,  with  which  the  Epistle  set  out ;  to  the  .power 
of  prayer  for  our  own  and  oar  brethren's  cure,  and  for  the  con- 
version of  sinners  in  true  wisdom. 

There  is  but  one  faith,  that  which  is  genuine  and  sound; 
yet  St  James  called  the  unsound  faith  by  the  same  name,  in 
order  to  exhibit  it  in  all  its  self-contradiction.  There  is  but  one 
wisdom,  that  which  is  true  ;  yet  he  admits  that,  independent  of 
and  in  opposition  to  it,  there  is  much  so-called  wisdom  to  be 
found.  He  now  places  the  two  in  contrast :  and,  at  the  outset, 
before  in  ver.  17  he  perfectly  delineates  true  wisdom,  he  sug- 
gests one  great  note  of  distinction  between  them,  which  is  ob- 
vious to  all,  and  itself  decisive : — he  places  in  opposition  to  each 
other,  the  meehiess  of  true  ivisdom  and  the  contention  of  the  false. 

By  this  he  has,  to  use  the  common  saying,  at  once  hit  the 
nail  on  the  head ;  and  can  ciy  to  the  whole  community  with 
power — Who  is  a  wise  man  and  prudent  among  you"?  Let 
him  show  in  a  good  conversation  his  works,  in  the  meekness  of 
wisdom !  He  is  not  now  speaking  primarily  of  that  wisdom 
which  is  most  essentially  necessary  to  every  man,  the  want  of 
which  first  becomes  known  to  om'selves  in  the  time  of  trial,  and 
drives  us  to  prayer — that  wisdom,  to  wit,  which  is  patience, 
obedience,  and  the  discreet  use  of  God's  tests  and  discipline. 
But  he  means,  as  just  before,  wisdom  for  the  teaching  of  others, 
which  was  to  be  shown  or  approved  among  the  brethren.  And 
that  wisdom  must  thus  be  sho\vn ;  for  if  God  has  given  us  such 
a  gift.  He  gave  it  to  us  not  for  ourselves  alone,  but  for  the 
service  and  salvation  of  others  also.  Only  a  perversion  of  this 
truth  lies  at  the  foundation  of  the  delusion  and  error  which 
makes  a  man  imagine  that  he  is  wise,  and  therefore  ready  to  show 
his  wisdom  to  others.  Who  is  wise  and  prudent  among  you  ? 
Answer  enough  comes  from  all  hands — Such  we  all  are!  But 
not  every  man  who  cries — I  also !  can  accept  the  test  of  the 
second  part  of  the  sentence.  ^^Hiien  St  James's  question  is 
uttered  into  the  midst  of  the  Chm'ch,  how  soon  the  wise  men 


3^2   GENTLENESS  OF  TRUE  WISDOM,  AND  WRATH  OF  FALSE. 

and  those  endued  with  knowlecJge  aimounce  themselves ;  how 
few  are  disposed  modestly  to  say — That  am  I  not  as  yet,,  but 
must  first  learn  to  become  wise  !  Even  among  the  women  the 
ready  response  is  too  frequently  heard ;  hoAV  many  of  them  are 
there  who  can  scarcely  keep  silence  in  the  church ;  who  do  not 
merely  ask  their  husbands  at  home,  but  answer  them  too  with- 
out being  themselves  asked,  and  not  only  their  husbands  at 
home !     (1  Cor.  xiv.  34,  35.) 

But  observe  well  the  question  of  St  James,  ye  presumptuous  ! 
Wlio  is  wise  and  endued  with  knmcledge  ?  There  is  a  great  dif- 
ference between  these  two;  and  the  second  is  not  of  much 
value  unless  jDreceded  by  the  former.  Not  only  may  a  man  be 
knowing  for  evil  with  the  worst  of  all  folly  ;  there  is  also  a  good 
knowledge  or  intelligence,  a  skill  in  the  performance  of  indi- 
vidual acts,  which  is  then  only  real  and  useful  when  it  proceeds 
from  wisdom,  and  continues  in  concert  with  wisdom.  To  be 
merely  knowing  or  intelligent,  is  not  much  of  itself,  it  is  a  very 
ambiguous,  dubious,  and  questionable  thing ;  but  to  be  wise 
and  full  of  knowledge,  that  is  the  great  concern !  Now,  who  is 
wise  and  endued  with  knowledge  *?  Who  is  there  that  has  it  in 
reality,  that  good  thing,  and  not  merely  says  that  he  has  it? 
This  is  the  meaning  of  the  question,  which  asks  for  the  thing 
itself  amid  all  the  semblances  and  pretensions  thereto.  First 
be,  become,  wise  ;  do  not  begin  at  once  with  the  assertion  and 
assumption  of  being  so !  Would  you  know  what  is  the  best 
test  of  truth,  which  is  sure  to  detect  and  baffle  all  forwardness 
and  error?  Show  forth,  before  all  things,  in  your  good  con- 
versation your  works.  This  we  heard  in  the  second  chapter ; 
it  is  always  decisive ;  and  it  is  so  even  here,  where  the  teaching 
of  others  is  concerned.  Proud  words,  which  are  not  sustained 
by  any  witness  of  the  life,  ai'e  clouds  without  water  (Jude  12), 
mere  noisy  thunder  without  the  glance  and  might  of  the  light- 
ninrr.  It  is  the  walk  which  distino-uishes  those  whose  conversa- 
tion  is  in  heaven,  and  who  are  guided  by  the  same  rule,  from 
those  who  s£re  the  enemies  of  the  cross  of  Christ,  about  which 
they  may  very  often  talk  (Phil.  iii.  16,  18,  20).  In  the  life,  by 
the  works,  the  light  of  the  Father  shines  reflected  from  His 
children  (Matt.  v.  16)  ;  the  true  teacher  tells  us — Be  folloAvers 
together  of  me,  and  mark  them  which  walk  so  !  (Phil.  iii.  17). 
St  Peter  exhorts  Christians  to  have  their  conversation  honest 


JAMES  III.  13-16.  383 

among  the  Gentiles,  that  they  might  see  and  glorify  their  good 
works  (1  Pet.  ii.  12) ;  and,  moreover,  he  speaks  of  the  mighty 
power  of  a  silent  conversation  without  word,  which  he  com- 
mends to  godly  women,  "that  if  any  obey  not  the  word,  they 
may  also  without  the  word  be  won  by  the  conversation  of  the 
wives !  "  (1  Pet.  iii.  1).  Where  the  good  foundation  has  be- 
fore been  laid,  the  very  words  become  power  and  life ;  they 
themselves  are  then  works :  it  is  this  which  St  James  probably 
means,  reckoning  among  the  works  the  genuine  acts  of  a  useful 
and  successful  word  and  testimony.  For  then  there  is  in  the 
words  life  and  spirit,  the  emphasis  of  power  and  trath.  But 
what  kind  of  spirit  is  this,  in  the  walk,  the  work,  and  the  word 
of  Christians  ?  That  which  teaches  and  warns — Let  us  not  be 
desirous  of  vaingloiy  in  teaching,  provoking  one  another,  envy- 
ing one  another !  That  which  exhorts — Restore  the  erring 
brother  in  the  spirit  of  meekness  (Gal.  v.  26,  vi.  1).  Thus 
meekness  is  the  element  and  the  token  of  all  true  wisdom  from 
above.  It  is  that  internal  meekness  and  submission  of  heart 
with  which  a  man  first  submits  himself  to  learn  of  God,  receiv- 
ing the  word  which  saves  his  own  soul  (Jas.  i.  21).  This  meek- 
ness, then,  shoivs  itself  outwardly  in  the  whole  deportment, 
especially  where  speaking  and  teaching  are  concerned.  Not  as 
if  this  wisdom  was  devoid  of  earnestness  and  zeal,  of  the  sacred 
vn'ath  of  love  which  worketh  the  righteousness  of  God,  of 
keenness  in  bearing  testimony  to  the  truth ;  but  even  in  its  zeal 
its  love  is  approved  in  the  conscience  of  him  who  hears,  and 
even  in  its  anger  true  meekness,  which  doeth  neither  too  much 
nor  too  little,  is  never  disturbed.  More  upon  this  point  we 
reserve  for  St  James'  description  of  the  wisdom  which  is  peace- 
able, gentle,  teachable,  merciful,  and  impartial.  L'jt  us  now 
only  hear  his  question — Have  you  this  wisdom  ?  Do  i/ou  show 
this  meekness  of  genuine  wisdom,  as  it  dwells  in  the  heart,  in 
your  life  and  works  ?  Are  you,  then,  thus  truly  wise,  who  glory- 
in  beino;  so  ? 

But  if  ye  have  (instead  of  this)  bitter  en\y  and  contention 
in  your  heart — glory  not,  and  lie  not  against  the  truth  !  The 
word  which  is  here  translated  envi/  is  properly  zeal ;  and  because 
there  is  a  good  and  sweet  zeal  of  love  which  floAvs  from  the 
fountain  of  grace  in  the  heart,  St  James  adds  the  qualification 
hitter  zeal,  meaning  that  which  is  ambitious,  hateful,  and  envious; 


384    GENTLENESS  OF  TRUE  WISDOM,  AND  WRATH  OF  FALSE. 

afterwards  in  ver.  16  lie  takes  the  word  alone  in  its  evil  sense. 
When  the  world  terms  the  holy  zeal  of  God's  children  conten- 
tion, it  lies  against  the  truth ;  knowing  well  that  this  war  is 
carried  on  only  for  the  sake  of  peace.  We  all  know,  if  we  will 
know,  how  to  distinguish  in  ourselves  and  others  the  sweetness 
and  the  bitterness  of  love  and  of  hatred,  of  humility  and  of  pride, 
the  spirit  of  peace  and  the  spirit  of  contention.  Where,  how- 
ever, contention  really  exists,  there  can  be  no  true  zeal ;  and 
whence  cometh  or  floweth  this  contention,  fighting,  and  war, 
but  from  our  own  heart  ? 

Have  you  this  in  your  heart  ?  It  may  be  hoped  that  we 
shall  all  answer  more  humbly — Alas,  blessed  Apostle,  we  have 
too  much  of  it  still !  It  may  be  hoped  that  no  man  will  be  too 
ready  to  boast  in  the  lie — My  heart  is  already  altogether  sweet- 
ened by  the  love  of  God  ;  I  am  not  conscious  of  any  remains  of 
contention,  envy,  or  wrath  !  But  this  is  the  impure  superfluity 
of  naughtiness  which  we  are  diligently  rooting  out,  if  we  have 
received  with  meekness  the  word  of  eternal  wisdom  for  our- 
selves ;  according  to  the  exhortation,  "  Let  all  bitterness,  and 
wrath,  and  anger,  and  clamoirr,  and  e\al  speaking,  be  put  away 
from  you,  with  all  malice"  (Eph.  iv.  31).  We  at  least  suffer 
not  the  bitterness  which  may  still  remain  in  our  hearts  any 
longer  to  flow  forth  from  the  hole  of  the  fountain,  the  mouth ; 
we  have,  that  is,  we  retain  and  keep,  it  no  longer  in  our  heart. 
Is  it  so  with  us,  dear  brethren  ?  Alas,  how  do  the  children  of 
the  world  everywhere  contend  with  each  other  !  And  naturally 
so,  for  what  else  have  they  in  their  hearts "?  But,  alas,  how. 
unnatural  it  is  that  Christians,  the  disciples  of  a  meek  and 
lowly  Master,  should  do  the  same  !  They  contend  among  them- 
selves, they  contend  and  quarrel  with  the  world  ;  yea,  the  whole 
Christianity  of  many  a  devotee  consists  only,  we  may  say,  in  a 
bitter  contempt  of  the  sins  of  sinners,  in  a  proud  and  loveless 
contention  with  that  which  it  terms  the  wicked  world.  Is  there 
any  of  this  in  your  hearts,  and  you  let  it  have  free  course,  then — 
St  James  says —  Glory  not  in  being  wise,  for  that  would  be  only 
a  lying  against  the  truth.  His  word  goes  still  further :  Even  if 
it  is  for  the  truth  that  you  bitterly  contend,  nevertheless,  with- 
out the  meekness  of  wisdom,  yoiu'  testimony  for  the  truth  which 
you  intelligently  hold  is  only  a  lie,  and  in  the  evil  spirit  which 
prompts  you  will  rather  damage  the  truth  than  fm'ther  its  obe- 


JAMES  III.  13-16.  3S5 

dience.  For  your  mind,  and  walk,  and  deportment,  your  icorJc 
in  word,  contradicts  the  substance  of  the  word  you  preach  :  you 
contend  while  you  insist  upon  love,  you  act  the  hypocrite  even 
while  teaching  the  truth — and  can  that  do  otherwise  than  create 
offence  and  harm  ? 

But  those  whom  it  concerns  will  not  hear  it;  they  go  on  to  gloiy 
and  justify  themselves:  "  Should  we  not  speak  since  Ave  know  the 
truth  ?  Should  we  not  be  zealous,  when  righteousn  ess  is  our  aim  ? 
Should  we  not  let  the  light  of  our  wisdom  shine,  since  we  have 
received  it  from  God  to  that  end?"  St  James  answers  such  a 
man,  patiently  and  with  a  holy  zeal — "  A^o,  ye  lie  !  Your  con- 
tentious wisdom  ye  have  not  received  from  God  !  That  is  not 
the  wisdom  which  cometh  from  above,  but — earthly,  human, 
devilish  /  Every  good  gift,  all  genuine  wisdom,  is  from  above. 
But  that  which,  lying  against  the  truth,  is  declared  to  be  such, 
is  false  wisdom  :  not  from  heaven,  but  earthly  ;  not  from  God's 
Spirit,  but  human,  of  man's  soul,  and  flesh,  and  blood ;  not  of 
Christ,  the  King  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  the  destroyer  of  the 
works  of  the  devil,  but  itself  devilish,  springing  from  the  influ- 
ence and  seduction  of  evil  spirits."  We  might,  upon  this  deep 
saying  of  St  James,  write  a  history  of  all  science  falsely  so  called, 
of  all  worldly  wisdom,  of  much  so-called  philosophy  and  even 
theology  ;  but  we  must  adhere  to  the  obvious  practical  meaning 
of  the  words,  in  their  order  in  the  exhortation.  Earthly,  human, 
devilish :  on  the  one  hand,  these  are  all  combined  in  false,  con- 
tentious wisdom,  as,  according  to  the  Catechism,  the  devil,  the 
world,  and  our  flesh,  mislead  us  first  of  all  in  the  misbelief  of 
groundless  imagination ;  on  the  other  hand,  there  is  a  gloomy 
progression  downwards  in  these  several  stages.  The  first  so- 
called  wisdom  is  the  earthly,  the  being  endued  with  knowledge 
concerning  earth  and  for  earth ;  and  this  might  in  itself  avail 
as  knowledge,  if  it  did  not  assume  to  place  itself  in  the  stead  of 
wisdom.  This  is  the  economical-political,  commercial,  indus- 
trial skill,  the  supreme  and  the  only  skill  of  the  earthly-minded, 
the  fisherman-skill  to  throw  the  net  without  the  word  of  God  : 
to  this  belongs  the  progress  of  arts  and  inventions  in  our  age, 
which  might  be  left  in  its  place  and  honom',  if  men  did  not  for- 
get heaven  while  reducing  earth  to  their  service.  But  man 
keeps  it  not  in  its  place,  when  he  resists  the  Spirit  of  God  :  his 
earthly  cunning  becomes,  as  human,  a  cunning  of  selfishness, 

2b 


386   GENTLENESS  OF  TRUE  V/ISDOM,  AND  WEATH  OF  FALSE. 

like  that  of  the  unjust  steward,  a  cunning  of  wicked  lust  and 
vainglory,  so  that  his  belly  becomes  his  god,  and  his  glory  is 
souoTit  in  what  is  his  shame.  When  the  earthly  is  exalted 
ao-ainst  heaven,  and  further  earthly  wisdom  is  applied  to  the 
heavenly  w^ord  of  truth,  then  arises  more  and  more  what  St 
James  calls  human  wisdom,  properly  natural-human  {sensual, 
or,  quite  literally,  sensuous,  psychical),  for  it  is  the  same  word 
which  St  Paul  uses  in  1  Cor.  ii.  14.  They  who  lay  hold  of  and 
treat  the  word  of  God  as  an  earthly  thing,  pervert  it  in  their 
school-contentions,  and  think  at  best  that  godliness  is  also  gain 
or  a  craft  (1  Tim.  vi.  4).  O  how  gi'eat,  and  ever-increasing,  is 
the  folly  when  flesh  and  blood  invades  that  which  belongs  to 
the  Spirit  of  God !  All  that  most  becoming  distrust  of  our 
own  spirit  is  gone,  and  all  humble  disposition  to  be  taught 
of  God.  Thence  comes  the  contention  of  the  learned  in 
their  proud  science,  thence  all  false  theology,  as  w^ell  the  ortho- 
dox as  the  heretical.  But  it  does  not  end  there;  for  Satan 
soon  comes  in,  when  flesh  and  blood  would  reveal  instead 
of  the  Father  in  heaven  through  His  Son  and  Spirit.  "  Eeason 
goeth  as  she  will  (alas,  not  even  as  she  will,  that  is  the  delusion) — 
Satan  can  tui'n  her  any  Avay !"  and  he  will  do  so  ;  he  does  it 
despotically,  accorcUng  to  his  mind,  through  the  ministry  of  his 
spirits  filling  the  air  of  this  world.  To  human  delusion  is  then 
added  sin  and  pei-version,  which  is  puffed  up  by  an  influence  and 
inbreathing  altogether  from  below.  If  you  handle,  and  study, 
and  teach  God's  word  only  in  a  human  manner,  another  spirit 
will  soon  intermeddle  with  yours  in  the  matter ;  and  the  lie 
affainst  the  truth  will  soon  break  forth  in  the  vilest  contention, 
the  most  impure  zeal,  the  im})etuous  storming  and  driving  of 
those  whom  the  devil  drives.  If  Satan  can  glide  in  even  where, 
as  in  the  case  of  Peter,  Matt.  xvi.  23,  the  human  element  is 
mingled  with  and  defiles  well-meaning  love — how  wall  the  busy 
devils  blow  up  the  abeady  existing  hell  in  the  heart  into  the  fire 
of  the  tongue,  when  pride  and  hatred  handle  the  rudder  !  That 
is  the  contention,  which  St  James  means,  in  its  full  and  perfect 
form  ;  the  lying  contention  about  the  truth  of  God,  the  ambi- 
tious strife  under  the  cloak  of  zeal  for  the  Divine  honoui',  which 
divides  brethren,  overturns  houses,  and  lays  waste  the  church  of 
God. 

By  their  fruits  ye  may  know  them,  adds  St  James :  for 


JAIVIES  III.  13-16.  387 

wliere  envy  and  contention  are,  there  is  confusion  and  every  vain 
thing !  Peaceable  wisdom  does  not  thei*e  sow  good  seed  of 
righteousness ;  for  only  where  there  is  mercy,  are  also  good  fruits 
(vers.  17,  18).  St  James  does  not  regard  these  evil  works  as 
worthy  of  the  name  of  fruits  at  all.  Let  all  history,  on  the  great 
and  on  the  small  scale,  from  the  beginning  till  now,  say  whether  it 
is  not  as  here  described.  "  And  into  whatsoever  house  ye  enter, 
first  say.  Peace  be  to  this  house  !"  (Luke  x.  5).  Thus  did  our 
Lord  send  forth  His  messengers ;  and  thus  they  proclaimed  the 
peace  of  the  Gospel  (Acts  x.  36 ;  Eph.  ii.  17).  But  those  whom 
He  did  not  send  troubled  the  Chm'ch  with  doctrine,  and  sub- 
verted the  souls  of  the  believers  (Acts  xv.  24)  ;  unruly  and 
vain  talkers  they  were  who  subverted  whole  houses  (Titus  i.  10, 
11).  And  when  through  such  vain  babbling  and  contention 
the  house  of  God,  the  entire  Church,  was  misled  and  subverted, 
the  Eeformers,  in  the  spirit  of  peace  and  in  holy  zeal  of  war- 
fare, began  to  build  again.  But,  alas,  even  then  some  unholy 
contention  crept  in,  and  the  evil  fruit  of  the  fleshly  seed  is  still 
present,  especially  in  the  divisions  of  evangelical  churches  ;  and 
now  this  evil  work  still  too  much  mingles  with  our  common 
warfare  against  the  only  true  enemy.  O  that  the  wisdom  from 
above  might  teach  us  to  edify  one  another  in  peace,  as  in  the 
beginnincr  the  Church  gathered  from  Jews  and  Gentiles  did,  with 
all  their  differences  and  oppositions  !  AU  the  distress  and  per- 
plexity of  the  Chiu'ch,  all  the  confusion  and  misubjection  or 
rebellion  of  self  against  the  Sphit  of  God,  has  sprung  from  the 
contention  of  the  fleshly  natm-e :  hence  the  divisions  and  sects ; 
hence  much  other  evil  work,  especially  the  hypocrisy  which 
lurks  beneath  an  enforced  unity.  In  the  world,  and  in  earthly 
things,  many  a  house  and  many  a  state  bears  testimony  that  in 
confusion  and  envying  nothing  good  can  thrive,  but  all  mischief 
must  ensue.  But  still  more  mournful  and  desolating  is  strife 
about  His  word  in  the  house  and  commonwealth  of  God,  the 
carnal  contention  among  brethren  and  tlie  members  of  Christ. 
Brethren,  contend  not  in  the  xoay  !  (Gen.  xlv.  24).  Have 
you  not  stood  together  before  your  Joseph,  to  receive  forgive- 
ness %  You  are  altogether  sinners,  but  by  common  grace  are 
now  brethren  as  being  children  of  peace.  Put  on  therefore,  as 
the  elect  of  God,  holy  and  beloved,  heartfelt  compassion,  kind- 
ness, humbleness  of  mind,  meekness,  longsuffering ;  forbearing 


388  THE  WISDOM  FEOM  ABOVE. 

one  another  and  forgiving  one  another;  let  the  peace  of  God 
rule  in  your  hearts,  to  the  which  also  ye  are  called  in  one  body ; 
thus  and  7iot  otherwise  let  the  word  of  Christ  dwell  among  you 
ricldy  in  all  wisdom,  thus  and  not  otherwise  teach  and  admonish 
yourselves  and  one  another  (Col.  iii.  12-16).  This  is  the 
wisdom  from  above,  in  which  your  meekness  will  show  itself 
and  accomplish  its  work  ;  that  brings  unity,  peace,  love,  order 
in  obedience  of  the  truth,  and  every  good  work.  "  Live  in 
peace ;  and  the  God  of  love  and  peace  shall  be  with  you" 
(2  Cor.  xiii.  11). 

XXI. 

THE  WISDOM   FROM   ABOVE. 

(Ch.  iii.  17,  18.) 

But  the  wisdom  that  is  from  above  is  first  pure,  then  peaceable,  gentle,  and 
easy  to  be  entreated,  full  of  mercy  and  good  fruits,  without  partiality, 
and  without  hypocrisy.  But  the  fruit  of  righteousness  is  sown  in  peace 
of  them  that  make  peace. 

Contend  not  in  self-will,  hatred,  and  envious  pride  of  vain- 
glory, but  approve  your  wisdom  in  meekness  !  Mark  that  from 
strife  only  evil  work  can  grow,  instead  of  the  peaceable  fruit  of 
righteousness  !  This  would  be  enough,  if  these  false  teachers 
would  thus  easily  be  entreated,  and  if  these  contentions  might 
so  easily  be  quelled.  But  St  James  knew  better,  and  therefore 
he  does  not  cease  so  soon  his  testimony  against  false  wisdom — 
just  as  in  the  former  chapter  against  false  faith.  Many  who 
were  really  guilty  might  not  give  in  to  all  his  previous  words, 
but  persist  to  say — I  envy  not,  nor  contend ;  my  zeal  is  only  for 
truth  ;  my  Avisdom  is  not  earthly,  human,  devilish,  as  thou  sayest, 
but  that  which  comes  from  above  !  Therefore  St  James  at  last 
places  a  'clear  and  lustrous  and  not  to  be  evaded  mirror  before 
the  vainly  wise,  the  proudly  self-asserting  and  fleshly  zealots, 
in  which  they  must  see  their  own  condemnation,  if  they  look 
into  it  and  continue  to  look.  Let  us  earnestly  look  into  it  our- 
selves, that  we  may  perfectly  know  the  difference  between  true 
and  false  wisdom,  that  we  may  see  what  manner  of  men  we  are, 
and  what  of  evil  we  have  yet  to  put  away. 


JAMES  III.  17,  18.  389 

The  wisdom  from  above  is  of  this  character :  that  is,  he  is 
such  who  has  received,  retained,  and  matured  that  wisdom. 
Here  is  a  clear  and  beautiful  pictm*e,  perfectly  sketched  in  few 
but  decisive  strokes  !  Who  among  you  is  such  a  wise  man, 
and  can  humbly  recognise  himself  in  this  portrait  ?  Most  of 
us,  alas,  are  very  far  from  having  reached  its  completeness ; 
but  let  him  who  sorrowfully  feels  this  of  himself,  look  around 
for  living  examples  in  whom  these  traits  are  found  united,  that 
they  may  bring  the  picture  more  livingly  near,  and  this  will 
help  to  make  the  word,  in  itself  dead,  a  living  word. 

True  wisdom  is  from  above ;  this  must  be  understood  at  the 
outset :  it  cannot  be  learned  of  men  in  human  fashion,  it  can- 
not be  explored  and  attained  by  our  own  spirit,  it  cannot  be 
speculated  out  by  our  own  will, — it  must  be  given  as  a  good 
gift  from  above.  But  it  is  given  only  to  tliose  who  ash,  and  to 
those  only  who  ask  aright,  who  ask  in  obedience  to  the  will 
of  God  for  an  understanding  heart,  not  merely  to  know  but  to 
do  His  holy  will ;  to  those  whose  hearts  condemn  them  not  in 
their  prayers,  but  who  have  confidence  towards  God,  for  they 
keep  His  commandments  and  do  that  which  is  well-pleasing  in 
His  sight,  especially  that  great  commandment  that  we  love  one 
another  (1  John  iii.  21-23).  But  the  gift  of  God,  which  is 
thus  prayed  for,  is  only  given  into  the  heart ;  and  it  is  then  the 
good  treasure  of  the  good  man,  instructed  unto  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  (Matt.  xii.  35,  xiii.  52).  Thus  the  wisdom /rom  above 
is  at  the  same  time  always  only  a  wisdom  from  ivithin :  it  is 
not  matter  of  the  head  and  provision  of  knowledge,  but  matter 
of  the  heart  and  the  real  possession  of  the  inner  man  and  being. 
Ye  have  in  your  heart  bitter  envy  and  wrath — had  been  St 
James'  rebuke.  Have  ye  in  your  heart  truth  and  purity  from 
God,  love  and  peace  as  the  gracious  gift  of  the  new  birth  ? 
This  is  his  question  now,  when  he  applies  the  profoundest  test. 
Is  yom*  love  really  rich  in  knowledge  and  all  experience  ?  (Phil. 
i.  9).  Are  ye  actually  teachers  and  masters  of  full  age,  who 
by  reason  of  use  in  spiritual  life  have  the  senses  of  your  new 
nature  exercised  to  distinguish  good  and  evil?  (Heb.  v.  14). 
Thus  deeply  he  penetrates  through  all  semblance  and  delusion 
into  the  inmost  being ;  first  disclosing  the  ground  of  the  heart, 
and  7iot  till  then  exliibiting  the  outward  expression  of  that  inward 
wisdom. 


390  THE  WISDOM  FROM  ABOVE. 

First  of  all,  and  before  anything  else  can  be  said,  the\^^sdom 
which  is  given  from  above  to  the  inner  man  is  pure ;  that  is,  he 
who  has  it  has  it  first  as  purity  of  heart,  is  pure  and  clean  in  his 
inmost  spirit.  We  think  naturally  here,  not  merely  of  that 
purity,  in  the  common  sense  of  it,  which  is  opposed  to  fleshly 
lust,  but  of  that  which  the  Holy  Scripture  everywhere  implies 
in  this  deep  and  beautiful  word.  All  sin  is  impure  desire  and 
adultery ;  true  spiritual  purity  is  the  being  cleansed  from  that 
stain.  If  the  wisdom,  in  which  I  am  to  teach  others,  is  right 
and  genuine,  that  is,  unsinful  and  pure,  it  must  come  from  a 
heart  which  is  cleansed  and  purified  in  the  love  of  God;  for 
only  into  such  a  heart  can  it  enter  as  a  heavenly  gift ;  "  into 
a  malicious  soul  wisdom  shall  not  enter,  nor  dwell  in  the  body 
which  is  subject  unto  sin"  (Wisd.  i.  4).  They  who  approve 
themselves  servants  of  God,  must  first  approve  themselves  in 
pmnty,  and  by  that  in  knowledge  (2  Cor.  vi.  G).  The  wise  like 
serpents  contend  with  the  world  and  the  devil,  but  they  are  with- 
out guile  like  doves  (^latt.  x.  16).  But,  as  in  the  lower  and 
•physical  sense  no  man  is  pure  by  nature,  but  must  continually 
mortify  the  lusts  which  still  exist  in  his  flesh,  not  otherwise 
is  it  with  spiritual  pm'ity  in  love  to  God.  Therefore  it  is  not 
only  to  open  sinners,  to  those  who  have  lapsed  into  adultery, 
that  St  James  cries  in  the  next  chapter — Cleanse  your  hands, 
ye  sinners,  if  ye  would  bear  the  vessels  of  your  Lord ;  and  purify . 
your  hearts,  that  your  hands  maybe  clean,  ye  double-hearted  and 
unfaithful !  (ch.  iv.  8).  But  it  is  the  continual  task  of  all  the 
regenerate,  who  through  Christ  believe  in  God — Purify  your 
souls  in  obedience  to  tlie  truth  through  the  Spirit !  (1  Pet.  i.  21, 
22).  This  is  the  fundamental  condition  of  all  wisdom,  if  it  is 
to  remain  in  the  heart  as  God's  gift,  and  flow  purely  from  it : 
— the  continual  self-denial  and  self-conquest  through  which 
alone  we  impure  sinners  can  be,  by  continually  becoming,  pure. 
Always  ^rs<  our  own  obedience,  and  that  the  obedience  of  the 
heart  to  the  truth,  Avhich  we  know  and  acknowledge — before  . 
we  should  undertake  to  speak  thereof,  and  show  our  wisdom ! 
Always  ^rsi  must  we  be  sincere  and  pure  in  God's  presence,  be- 
fore we  can  say  anything  in  the  name  of  God  in  presence  of  our 
neighbour !  Always  first  the  question — How  do  I  myself  stand 
towards  the  truth  ?  Does  my  heart  live  in  it,  is  my  will  sub- 
missive to  it  ?      That,  indeed,  I  cannot  show  to  any  man,  and 


J.\MES  III.  17,  18.  391 

no  man.  can  look  within  me ;  but  God  above  sees  all,  and  so 
looks  for  this  pm'e  internal  sincerity.  Therefore  must  we  utter 
always  the  prayer — Prove  me,  and  show  me  my  thoughts ;  make 
me  pure  from  every  secret  delusion  of  desire  and  vanity ! 

If  wisdom  is  sound  in  this  first  point,  it  may  afterwards 
show  itself  as  it  really  is,  internally.  St  James  paints  it  in  seven 
traits;  but  the  first  three  still  refer  to  those  demonstrations 
which  properly  flow  from  the  inner  man,  which  are  strictly  con- 
nected with  the  sound  condition  of  the  pm'e  heart.  The  wis- 
dom which  is  pure  is  then  also  peaceable,  gentle,  teachable ;  not 
contentious,  hard,  or  proudly  self-asserting. 

That  which  Christ  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  placed 
seventh  in  order,  pronouncing  the  peacemakers  blessed,  is  here 
rightly  put  first.  There  the  saying  concerning  purity  of 
heart  preceded,  and  so  it  does  here ;  for  only  out  of  the  inter- 
nal peace  of  a  pure  heart,  sincerely  purifying  itself  continually, 
comes  the  true  peaceableness  of  word,  work,  and  walk.  The 
peaceable  children  of  God,  against  whom  the  ungodly,  who 
break  His  covenant,  put  forth  their  hands  (Ps.  Iv.  20) — are 
primarily  those  who  are  reconciled  to  and  accej)ted  of  God  in 
this  same  covenant.  Another  word,  also  in  the  Old  Testament, 
terms  them  beautifully — in  an  expression  which  the  New  Tes- 
tament brings  into  its  full  force — the  quiet  in  the  land,  against 
whom  their  haters  without  cause  speak  not  peace,  but  evermore 
devise  deceitful  matters  (Ps.  xxxv.  19,  20).  But  these  are  not 
they  who  falsely  cry,  Peace,  when  there  is  no  peace ;  how  should 
their  wisdom  then  come  from  above,  and  how  could  their  hearts 
be  then  pm'e  in  the  obedience  of  the  truth  ?  Indeed,  they  seek, 
and  desire,  and  labour  for  the  righteousness  of  God ;  therefore, 
according  to  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  these  peaceable  ones  are 
persecuted  for  righteousness'  sake.  But  still  it  is  not  they  who 
are  haters  and  persecutors  w  ith  restless  spirits ;  as  far  as  in 
them  lies,  they  maintain  peace  with  all  men,  labom'ers  in  the 
work  of  patience  anct  faith,  wdio  everywhere  proffer  the  peace 
of  God  ;  in  the  slow  and  thorough  husbandry  of  God,  sowing 
righteousness,  that  love  and  peace  may  be  the  harvest.  That 
this  alone  is  the  right  method,  they  are  taught  by  their  own 
most  internal  experience ;  this  is  what  they  are  taught  by  the 
Spirit  of  peace  in  the  New  Testament,  which  is  a  different  spirit 
from  that  of  Elias — or  that  of  Jehu,  the  son  of  Nimshi  (2  Ivings 


392  THE  WISDOM  FROM  ABOVE. 

ix.  20).  O  how  beautiful  are  everywhere,  where  they  come,  the 
feet  of  such  a  messenger  of  peace,  anointed  and  sent  of  the  Lord  I 
He  speaks  and  testifies  the  truth ;  but  in  humihty,  from  a  heart 
which  has  daily  to  seek  forgiveness  for  its  own  sins  ;  he  contends 
against  the  unrighteousness  of  the  world,  but  as  being  equipped 
and  prepared  to  that  end  with  the  gospel  of  peace  (Eph. 
vi.  15). 

Therefore  it  is  furtlier  gp.ntle  : — this  seems  to  be  almost  the 
sarnie,  but  means  rather  the  manifestation  of  peaceableness  in 
deportment  towards  others.  This  is  particularly  that  meekness 
of  wisdom,  in  which  St  James  previously  summed  up  all.  The 
minister  of  God  approves  himself  with  his  true  knoivledge, 
which  comes  from  |:»i<r<??ie55,  continually  in  long  suffering,  in 
kindness,  in  the  Holy  Ghost  (2  Cor.  vi.  6).  Not  therefore  by 
his  own  spirit,  which  is  stirred  by  vehement  passion  after  the 
mind  of  the  flesh.  Because  we  know  the  terror  of  the  Lord, 
we  deal  tenderly  with  the  people — says  the  same  Apostle 
(2  Cor.  V.  11).  The  gentle  servant  of  God  is  far  from  rebuk- 
ing only  with  severity,  far  from  demanding,  driving,  and  con- 
straining ;  he  knows  how  in  the  long  forbearance  of  God  to 
bear  with  the  wicked,  and  all  their  wickedness  (2  Tim.  ii.  24), 
because  he  expects  nothing  else  from  their  nature ;  he  can  also 
instruct  those  who  oppose  themselves  in  meekness  (ver.  25) ; 
specially  he  can  be  wisely  and  unsinfully  compliant  with  the 
weak,  that  he  may  not  destroy  what  he  should  save.  (We  may 
translate  the  word  in  St  James  also  by  compliant.)  Thus  he 
makes  his  gentleness  known  to  all  men,  because  the  Lord,  Avho 
came  to  save  men's  souls,  always  is  near  in  the  holy  patience 
of  pure  love  (Phil.  iv.  5  ;  Luke  ix.  56).  And  to  this  we  are  all 
exhorted,  dear  brethren,  in  the  words  which  bid  us  speak  evil 
of  no  man,  to  be  no  brawlers,  but  gentle,  showing  all  meekness 
to  all  men ;  for  ive  ourselves  also  were  sometimes  foolish,  dis- 
obedient, deceived,  hateful — but  the  kindness  and  benevolence 
of  God  our  Saviour  alone  hath  saved  atid  won  us  (Titus  iii. 
2-4).  How  can  one  who  has  himself  been  saved  and  forgiven 
be  hard  and  severe,  remembering  that  fact,  against  his  fellow- 
sinners  and  fellow-redeemed?  "  Is  it  not  gi'ace  which  makes 
the  difference  in  me  1  And  is  not  the  same  grace  also  for  others  ? 
And  have  I  myself  no  longer  any  sin  ?"  To  think  thus  in  true 
wisdom  makes  the  Christian  gentle  in  his  demands,  j\idgments, 


JAMES  III.  17,  18.  393 

and  deportment.  He  demands  nothing  for  himself,  makes  no 
personal  pretensions  at  all ;  he  demands  his  neighbour's  soul 
only  for  God,  as  the  messenger  and  minister  of  His  all-Avinning 
love.  He  does  not  judge  and  condemn  swiftly  and  rigorously : 
he  does  not  indeed  compromise  with  sin  in  false  gentleness,  but 
he  takes  good  care  not  to  lay  too  much  stress  upon  any  circum- 
stances, and  not  to  think  only  evil  of  his  neighbour.  He  deals 
with  the  sinner  in  tender  prudence,  that  he  may  reach  his  heart ; 
he  well  knows  that  the  quiet  might  and  gentle  violence  of  love 
is  the  strongest  and  most  penetrating  of  all  power.  He  never 
forgets  the  word  of  his  Master — See  well,  hoio  thou  pluckest 
the  mote  out  of  thy  brother's  eye!  (Matt.  vii.  5).  If  that 
holds  good  of  the  brother's  mote,  ynth.  how  much  more  pru- 
dence and  care  is  the  whole  world's  unrighteousness  to  be  dealt 
with ! 

And  if,  after  all,  I  myself  still  have  my  motes,  so  that  my 
eye  has  not  seen  right,  and  my  hand  sometimes  missed  the 
mark !  The  wisdom  from  above  is  easily  entreated — and  that 
must  never  be  wanting !  Only  the  perfect  wisdom  above,  the 
wisdom  of  God,  can  speak  without  having  itself  to  hear  and  to 
leam ;  but  the  wisdom  which  is  gi\  en  from  above  to  a  sinful 
man  is  perfect  only  in  having  learned  and  in  continuing  to 
learn.  God,  speaking  to  Job  out  of  the  whirlwind,  shames  him 
by  saying,  "  I  will  demand  of  thee,  make  me  to  know ;"  but 
Elihu  in  his  wisdom  cries,  "  If  tJwu  hast  anything  to  say, 
answer  me ;  speak,  for  I  desire  to  justify  thee"  (Job  xxxiii. 
32).  St  James'  word  means  also  teachable  or  ivilling  to  hear. 
Woe  unto  those  who  find  it  a  contradiction,  that  their  wisdom 
should  ever  need  to  he  taught  !  We  were  sometimes  foolish :  to 
know  and  acknowledge  this,  was  the  beginning  of  our  wisdom, 
and  thus  we  received  God's  grace.  For,  "  seest  thou  a  man  wdio 
is  wise  in  his  own  eyes,  there  is  more  hope  of  a  fool  than  of  him" 
(Prov.  xxvi.  12).  St  James  has  spoken  much  on  this  point  at 
an  earlier  stage,  but  he  still  holds  to  it  here :  wisdom  with  us 
consists  not  merely  in  our  having  once  submitted  to  hear,  but  in 
om'  continuing  and  increasing  in  our  swiftness  to  hear.  The 
only  teachers  coming  down  from  heaven  are  the  disciples  who 
strive  constantly  to  be  perfect  like  their  only  Master.  The 
learned  have  a  Latin  proverb,  which  however  they  do  not  always 
verify  in  themselves,  that  in  teaching  we  learn.     This  is  the 


394  THE  WISDOM  FROM  ABOVE. 

motto  of  divine  wisdom  in  heavenly  things ;  in  them  there  is 
no  such  thing  as  ever  speaking  and  teaching  without  ha\dng 
anything  to  learn.  In  our  German  words  BescheidenJieit  and 
Bescheid  icissen,  modesty  and  knowledge  are  closely  allied;  out 
of  profound  knowledge  comes  always  deepening  humility  and 
prudence.  He  who  is  exercised  in  the  wisdom  which  cometli 
from  above  has  never  ended  with  it ;  he  can  never  be  self-as- 
sertincT  and  obstinate :  he  receives  the  common  commendation 
of  one  who  may  be  spoken  to  and  answered  when  he  speaks. 
And  this  becomes  us  fallible  men ;  in  this  spirit  alone  we  can 
go  forward  in  the  right  way ;  for  "  he  that  hateth  to  be  in- 
structed is  already  (again)  in  the  way  of  sinners"  (Ecclus.  xxi. 
6).  Let  us  choose  to  ourselves  this  judgment,  to  know  among 
ourselves  what  is  good  (Job  xxxiv.  4).  If  thou  hast  an  excuse 
when  I  condemn  thee — how  gladly  will  I  admit  it  if  it  be 
valid!  (J desire  thy  justification — said  Elihu  to  Job.)  Hast 
thou  anything  to  object  against  my  words — let  me  hear  it,  that 
I  may  not  do  wrong  when  I  mean  to  do  right !  Such  a  wise 
man  does  not  go  forth  among  the  peo])le,  to  thrust  a  sword  into 
their  belly,  as  Ehud  did  to  the  king  of  the  IMoabites,  with — 
"  I  have  a  word  from  God  for  thee  !"  (Judges  iii.  20).  To  him 
the  sincere  question  is  much  more  natm'al — "  Hast  thou  a  word 
from  God  for  me  ?"  The  first  Apostle,  Peter,  received  rebuke, 
when  he  was  in  the  wrong,  from  Paul  the  latest  comer  (Gal. 
ii.  11).  Moses,  the  man  of  God,  received  instruction  from  his 
fathei*-in-law  Jethro :  "  The  thing  that  thou  doest  is  not  good ; 
hearken  now  unto  my  voice,  I  will  give  thee  counsel,  and  God 
shall  be  with  thee"  (Ex.  -xvm.  17-22).  But  Avhy  need  we  seek 
examples  among  the  servants  ?  The  Master  Himself  puts  us 
to  shame  by  condescending  to  the  very  limits  of  the  apparent 
possibility  that  He — who  was  born  (not  horn  agaiii)  to  bear 
testimony  to  the  truth,  and  who  came  into  the  world  as  the  per- 
sonal Truth — might  have  been  in  error;  condescending  thus, 
however,  only  that  He  might  set  before  us  the  highest  of  all 
examples.  See  and  mark  how  He,  before  the  high  priest, 
referred  to  all  that  He  had  said  and  done ;  but,  when  the  com- 
mon servant  smote  Him  on  the  face.  His  answer  was — If  I 
have  spoken  evil,  bear  witness  of  the  evil :  but  if  well,  why 
smitest  thou  me?  (John  xviii.  20-23).  Verily,  every  servant 
who  remembers  the  word  of  the  Master,  '■'•  If  I  have  spoken 


JAMES  III.  17-18.  395 

evily  hear  witness  of  it  /"  will  be  always  ready  to  receive  from 
every  man  any  evidence  of  error  that  lie  can  bring — knowing 
full  well  that  it  is  not  for  him  absolutely  to  say,  I  bave  only 
sjioken  right ! 

And  now  first,  after  St  James  has  set  before  us  the  spirit  of 
Y>'isdom  from  above,  as  peaceable,  gentle,  and  teachable,  he  speaks 
further  of  its  work,  whence  its  good  fruits  come  and  to  what 
they  tend.  His  last  four  words,  which  express  this,  are  con- 
nected in  pau's  :  to  retain  the  connection  between  the  principle 
and  the'  expression,  the  cause  and  the  work  ;  and  to  bring  back 
all  at  the  last  to  the  first  and  most  internal  principle  of  wisdom. 

Full  of  mercy  and  good  fruits  I  These  are  united,  because 
to  shoio  mercy  towards  our  fellow  is  itself  the  good  fruit,  in 
which  all  good  fruits  are  comprised ;  to  have  mercy  for  him  in 
the  heart,  is  at  the  same  time  the  power  or  the  seed  of  such  out- 
ward charity.  Indeed,  to  create  fruit  is  the  end  of  all  true 
wisdom,  which  can  never  be  a  dead  and  unfruitful  knowledge. 
The  knowledge  of  the  xoill  of  God  is  given  to  us,  in  all  kinds  of 
"wisdom  and  spiritual  understanding,  in  order  that  we  may  walk 
worthy  of  the  Lord  unto  all  well-pleasing,  and  be  fruitful  in  all 
good  works  (Col.  i.  9,  10).  But  every  good  work,  as  fruit  in 
om'selves,  produces  also,  will  at  least  also  produce,  good  fruit  in 
our  neighbour.  Here  the  Lord's  High-priestly  word  passes  over 
to  His  people,  the  priestly  ministers  and  mediators  of  His  love, 
so  that  every  one  of  us  in  His  strength  may  say — I  sanctify 
myself  for  them,  that  they  may  also  be  sanctified  in  the  truth 
(John  xr\ii.  19).  The  good  fruit  of  the  seed  of  grace  is,  at 
once  and  inseparably,  oui"  own  sanctification  in  effectual  love, 
and  the  influence  of  that  love  upon  others  :  in  this  style  alone 
the  New  Testament  always  speaks  of  good  fruits.  But  they  are 
good  fruits,  which  never  grow  but  on  the  stock  of  love  !  Many 
have  done  great  works,  which  the  Lord  will  not  accept  as  the 
fruits  of  the  good  tree.  Many  in  om'  days  are  very  laborious, 
and  run  hither  and  thither,  "  in  the  cause  of  the  kingdom  of 
God,"  as  they  say — but  the  kingdom  of  God  is  not  built  up  in 
their  manner,  and  what  they  may  seem  to  effect  will  not  be  put 
to  their  reckoning.  Many  are  deeply  engaged  in  teaching  the 
people  opinions,  Avhich  are  to  them  their  traths,  and  in  disput- 
ing away  their  eiTors — but  where  is  the  good  fruit  of  all  this 
stir  ?  who  is  mended  by  it,  who  is  converted  or  won  to  the  king- 


396  THE  WISDOM  FROM  ABOVE. 

do  111  oP  heaven  ?  On  the  other  hand,  there  are  many  of  the 
quiet  in  the  land,  who  make  no  noise,  who  profess  no  great 
things,  who  walk  everywhere  humbly  and  meekly — but  wher- 
ever they  go  they  diffuse  around  them  what  seems  a  breath  of 
life ;  the  words  which  they  speak  in  season  are  seeds  of  corn ;  all 
their  work  and  life  is  fruitful  in  silent  influence,  and  great  is 
the  fruit  which  they  bring  to  God,  though  man  knows  nothing  of 
it  and  thinks  the  reverse.  Grace  works  by  such  souls  ;  they  live 
in  love,  and  that  is  the  profound  secret  of  their  strength.  Such 
examples  show  us  the  meaning  of  the  apostolical  word,  in  oppo- 
sition to  the  seeming  laboxu'  of  the  vehement  zealots  who  do  not 
work  the  mercy  of  God ;  although  those  who  are  called  and 
fitted  to  that  purpose  should  lift  up  their  loud  and  mighty  tes- 
timony, and  vehemently  contend  for  good, — under  the  obliga- 
tion, however,  of  asking  themselves  very  solemnly  the  question, 
Is  my  wisdom  full  of  mercy  and  good  fruits  ? 

The  keenest  question,  finally,  remains,  and  that  which  is 
most  pervasive,  though  it  only  tests  the  fundamental  principle— 
Is  it  loitliout  partiality,  and  without  hypocrisy  ?  Both  go  toge- 
ther, here  as  before ;  for  what  hypocrisy  is  without  partiality, 
and  what  partiality  does  not  spring  from  an  essential  li}^ocrisy  ? 
St  James  does  not  mean  to  say  that  we  should  be  what  the 
world,  which  perverts  every  word  and  idea  that  concerns  God's 
truth,  calls  "  unprejudiced"  or  impartial ;  for  in  the  next  chap- 
ter (ver.  4)  he  makes  the  sharp  demarcation  between  the  world 
and  friendship  with  God.  The  folly  of  the  world  may  count 
our  chaste  and  decided  devotion  to  God,  and  fellowship  with 
His  children  in  opposition  to  other  men,  to  be  partisanship  :  we 
shall  best  counteract  the  perversion  and  protest  of  this  word  by 
that  divine  impartiality  which  the  Apostle  means.  Alas,  this 
is  not  often  to  be  found  ;  alas,  this  last  mark  detects  much  false 
wisdom  with  its  hypocrisy  !  There  have  been  periods  in  the 
history  of  the  Christian  Church  when  almost  all  might  have 
been  asked  —  Brethren,  are  ye  truly  impartial,  unprejudiced  ? 
Are  ye  so  impartial  in  that  universal  love  which  remembers  that 
the  grace  of  Christ  is  free  and  open  to  all  mankind?  How 
easily  do  we  make  evil  distinctions,  which  can  never  consist  with 
the  pure  and  unfeigned  faith  in  the  Lord  of  glory  !  The  wis- 
dom which  is  truly  unprejudiced,  which  does  not  look  through 
any  discolouring  medium,  and  is  not  distracted  by  any  ima- 


JAMES  III.  17,  18.      ■  397 

gination  or  prejudgment  wliicli  thwarts  the  pure  love  of  God, 
beliolds  all  men  in  the  light  of  truth  ;  therefore  it  admits  the 
excellence  of  nothing  which  does  not  stand  the  test  of  this  light, 
it  regards  not  the  person  or  the  dignity  of  any  man.  But,  on 
the  other  side  (and  here  we  mostly  fail !),  it  overlooks,  judges, 
and  neglects  no  man,  be  he  who  he  may,  but  accepts  joyfully  all 
goodness  according  to  its  Avortli,  be  it  found  in  whom  it  may. 
This  wisdom  is  so  wise  that  it  looks  through  every  appearance 
and  form  to  the  inner  being  as  it  stands  before  God  ;  or,  failing 
to  do  that,  refrains  at  least  on  that  account  from  all  judgment 
and  distinction.  Only  then  is  it  without  hypocrisy ,  tliat  is, 
genuine,  pure  wisdom,  as  given  from  above,  and  there  is  mingled 
wath  it  no  self-created  skill  in  making  distinctions.  Thus  St 
James  in  the  last  word,  as  the  sum  of  all,  leads  his  whole  dis- 
course back  to  the  first ;  for,  according  to  the  pm'ity  of  the 
heart  at  the  first,  will  be  the  absence  of  hypocrisy  in  the  expres- 
sions of  wisdom.  But  here  we  must  ask  in  humility — Where 
is  such  wasdom  from  above  perfected  in  any  sinful  men  ?  We 
must  confess  that  the  best  men  have  too  much  failed  in  this 
respect,  and  that  there  is  among  Christians  generally  too  much 
of  the  party  and  prejudiced  spirit.  Therefore,  St  James  places 
last,  as  the  highest  goal,  from  which  also  we  must  continually 
set  out,  the  making  the  heart  pure  that  the  eyes  may  be  clear  to 
see,  and  the  hands  pure  to  act ;  for  hypocrisy  is  rooted  deeply 
in  us  all,  until  we  are  sanctified  through  and  through  by  the 
truth  unto  the  wisdom  which  faileth  not. 

St  James,  however,  would  not  by  this  conclusion  cast  us 
down,  instead  of  stimulating  us  ;  he  therefore,  according  to  the 
meekness  of  his  own  wisdom,  descends  from  this  elevation,  and 
utters  another  word  which  again  requires  only  meekness  and 
peaceableness  as  the  condition  of  the  healthy  influence  of  our 
wisdom.  That  at  least  we  can,  and  we  ought,  all  soon  to  attain 
to ;  suppressing  all  the  contention  and  strife  which  may  result 
from  the  partiality  of  our  evil  thoughts,  we  may  in  peace  speak 
the  word  of  God's  truth,  and  cany  on  the  work  of  wisdom. 
The  fruit  of  righteousness  is  sown  in  peace  of  those  and  for 
those  who  keep,  and  practise,  and  work  peace,  seeking  that  and 
that  alone  !  Thus  St  James  sets  a  gracious  promise  over  against 
that  which  he  had  said  about  the  evil  works  of  contention  ;  but 
we  have  already,  on  that  verse,  said  enough  upon  it  to  render 


398       WHENCE  COME  WAES  AND  FIGHTINGS  AJNIONG  TOU  ? 

any  furtlier  remarks  upon  it  here  unnecessaiy.  To  be  filled 
with  the  fruits  of  righteousness  which  are  by  Jesus  Christ  to  the 
praise  and  glory  of  God  (Phil.  i.  11)  —  is  the  end  of  all  good 
works  which  God  has  begun  in  ourselves  and  "wdll  perforai. 
Peaceable  fruit  of  righteousness — that  is  what  God's  holy  dis- 
cipline, which  accompanies  the  word,  will  bring  forth  in  us 
(Heb.  xii.  11).  And  the  same  should  be  the  only  end  of  all 
our  teaching,  the  fruit  of  all  our  endeavours  among  our  neigh- 
bours for  our  good.  "  Fruits,  gentlemen,  fruits,  in  the  sound- 
ness of  men !"  This  was  the  king  of  Prussia's  word  to  the 
University  of  Konigsberg  ;  and  it  was  a  royal  word,  a  word  of 
Solomon  in  this  age.  Health-giving,  and  healthy  fruits  grow 
where  good  seed  is  sown  ;  but  the  seed  itself  has  been  gathered 
as  the  produce  of  good  seed,  and  thus  one  righteousness  is  sown 
for  another.  Let  us  ourselves  be  full  ears  which  bow  down  to 
scatter  around  their  grains  of  seed  !  And  what  is  the  element 
of  blessing  and  prosperity,  the  good  weather  from  above  which 
makes  the  seed  grow  ?  In  peace,  says  the  Apostle —  including, 
indeed,  the  storm  and  boisterous  weather  of  good  contention,  as 
well  as  the  earnest  laboui*  of  the  plough  before  it  can  become 
seed ;  but  still  it  holds  good  that  the  peace  of  God  is  never 
wanting,  that  only  those  really  attain  to  righteousness  in  them- 
selves and  others,  who  seek,  and  find,  and  maintain  this  peace. 
For,  in  its  deepest  principle,  peace  and  righteousness  are  one 
and  the  same. 

xxn. 

WHENCE  COME  WARS  AND  FIGHTINGS  AMONG  YOU  ? 
(Ch.  iv.  1-3.) 

From  whence  come  wars  and  fightings  among  you  ?  Come  they  not  hence, 
even  of  your  lusts  that  war  in  your  members  ?  Ye  lust,  and  have  not : 
ye  fight  and  war,  but  ye  have  not,  because  ye  ask  not.  Ye  ask,  and 
receive  not,  because  ye  ask  amiss,  that  ye  may  consume  it  upon  your 
lusts. 

Long  since  did  He  appear,  whose  last  name  was  Prince  of 
peace,  because  of  the  increase  of  His  government  and  peace 
there  should  be  no  end,  when  He  should  order  His  kingdom  and 


JA]MES  IV.  1-3.  399 

establish  it  with  judgment  and  Avith  justice  (Is.  ix.  6,  7).  Long 
ago  did  the  Holy  Spirit  descend,  who  testifies  and  works  as  a 
Spirit  of  peace,  as  He  is  called.  And  yet  that  heavenly  song — 
On  earth  peace  !  is  so  little  fulfilled,  that  not  even  in  the  Chvu'ch 
is  peace  to  be  found ;  so  that  Ps.  Ixxii.,  concerning  the  kingdom 
of  Solomon,  when  the  mountains  should  bring  peace,  and  the 
little  hills  righteousness,  when  the  righteous  should  flourish,  and 
there  should  be  abundance  of  peace — is  still  no  more  than  a 
prophecy.  From  the  beginning,  even  in  apostolical  churches, 
tliere  was  not  that  perfect  peace ;  and  in  our  day  St  James' 
word  penetrates  with  conviction  every  community —  Whence  comes 
warfare  and  contention  among  you  ? 

That  the  Gentiles,  before  Christ  came  to  speak  peace  unto 
them,  and  to  cut  off  the  battle-bow  (Zech.  ix.  10),  should  have 
lived  in  war  and  contention,  was  no  more  than  natural :  but 
Christendom,  avov>dng  the  name  of  Christ,  should  sm'ely  be  at 
peace.  Indeed,  this  so-called  Christendom  on  earth,  as  it  (not 
contrary  to  God's  counsel)  is  a  wide  net  which  encloses  many 
peoples,  is  far  from  being  the  Church  of  the  saints,  the  body  of 
Christ,  in  which  His  Spuit  dwelleth  :  therefore  to  this  day 
bloody  wars  are  carried  on  among  Christian  nations,  and  it  can- 
not be  otherA\ase  in  the  cause  of  righteousness  against  unright- 
eousness ;  to  prosecute  boldly  such  wars  is  the  Christian  duty 
of  kings  and  subjects,  on  all  such  occasions  as  demand  the 
sword,  which  God  puts  into  their  hands.  Fuilher,  among 
Christian  peoples,  states,  and  churches,  the  good  fight  of  faith 
must  be  urged  with  the  sword  of  the  word  against  all  that  is 
unchristian  and  godless  ;  as  eveiy  pious  man  must,  for  his  peace, 
war  against  the  devil,  the  world,  and  his  own  flesh.  But  this 
good  warfare  St  James  does  not  mean ;  he  rather  includes  in 
the  peace,  in  which  the  fruit  of  righteousness  must  be  sown  (ch. 
iii.  18),  the  piu'e  zeal  of  truth  in  love  against  all  unrighteous- 
ness, and  all  the  words  and  works  which  this  involves.  Never- 
theless, enough  is  left  to  wari'ant  his  keen  question  :  A^lience 
come  xoars  and  contentions  among  you,  strife  and  dissension  in 
word  and  work  between  brethren  and  members  of  the  Lord's 
Church,  evil  wars  in  miniature  like  those  which  are  carried  on 
amono;  the  nations  without  ? 

That  among  the  Christians  only  in  name  who  are  essentially 
heathens,  that  among  the  children  of  the  world,  among  whom 


400      WHENCE  COME  WARS  AND  FIGHTINGS  AMONG  YOU? 

there  has  been  no  advent  and  entrance  of  the  gentle  Prince  of 
peace,  houses  and  hearts  should  be  full  of  war  and  confusion — 
is  also  quite  natxu'al.  But  is  it  found  also  among  you,  ye  be- 
lievers, who  have  been  born  again  throuoh  the  word  of  truth  ?  If 
those  are  called  the  sons  of  peace,  who  are  only  ready  and  prepared 
to  receive  the  message,  Peace  be  to  this  house !  (Luke  x.  5,  6), 
how  should  they  approve  themselves  the  peaceable  children  of 
God,  who  have  long  received  it !  But  is  it  so,  that  believers 
themselves  can  repel  the  question  of  St  James,  and  reply  in 
general — With  us  is  everywhere  peace!? — O  no;  it  presup- 
poses another  question,  the  answer  of  which  is  self-understood 
and  obvious  : — Is  there  not  actually  war  and  contention  in  many 
houses  in  which  Christians  dwell  together?  in  many  unions, 
and  in  many  families,  even  of  believers  ?  between  neighboui's 
and  companions  in  the  spiritual  house  of  God?  Is  there 
not  among  brethren  that  worst  and  most  hatefu.1  contention 
about  the  word  of  truth  and  peace  itself,  carried  on  in  anything 
but  the  peace  of  love  ?  This  is  what  St  James  means  especially 
at  first,  although  not  alone,  when  he  here  extends  his  word,  in 
order  to  speak  generally  of  the  evil  principle  which  lies  at  the 
root  of  all  evil  contention.  Thus,  whence  cometh  that  ?  Truly 
a  great  and  salutary  question.  He  does  not  put  it  as  not  him- 
self knowing,  but  he  would  receive  the  sincere  answer  from 
ourselves.  Are  we  ready  to  give  it  of  ourselves,  before  he 
utters  it  in  condemnation  ?  Too  many  of  us  are  inclined  to 
evade  it,  and  find  other  reasons  than  the  right.  The  most  common 
reply  refers  the  fault  to  our  neighbour,  or  to  something  without : 
every  contentious  man  is  ready  to  say  of  his  fellow-contenders — 
They  will  not  have  peace,  and  therefore  I  cannot.  There  are, 
indeed,  cases  in  which  no  man  can  be  bold  enough  to  single  out 
individual  persons  as  the  cause ;  in  which  the  lohence  cannot  be 
properly  found  among  the  disputants  themselves; — but  every 
one  will  hold  to  it,  that  he  is  not  the  cause,  and  in  the  end  some 
unknown  iio  man  bears  the  blame.  Brethren,  that  is  the  well- 
known  some  one,  whom  St  James  afterwards  (ver.  7)  can  men- 
tion, tJie  devil;  but  he  fleeth  if  he  is  resisted  ;  he  can  sow  hatred 
and  enmity  only  where  heai'ts  admit  and  foster  the  seed.  Can 
the  smoke  of  the  conflict  without  come  from  anywhere  else  than 
the  fire  within  ;  from  that  tinder  in  your  souls  which  is  ready 
within  you  for  Satan's  spark  ?     The  true  answer  would  be  the 


JAMES  IV.  1-3.  401 

humble  confession — The  lust  of  self,  the  mother  of  all  sin  is, 
alas,  still  mighty  Avithin  us  ;  we  do  not  pray  for  the  grace  and 
gift  from  above  to  resist  it,  for  God's  meek  and  peaceable  wis- 
dom ;  our  suppKcating  and  praying,  such  as  we  use,  is,  at  least, 
not  the  right  prayer.  This  is  the  answer  which  the  Apostle 
gives  in  the  first  three  verses  of  this  chapter :  he  shows  us  the 
still  present  gi'ound  of  all  disquiet  within  us ;  points  out  the 
neglected  way  to  peace ;  and,  finally,  gives  the  conclusive  answer 
to  all  false  excuses  of  those  who  think  they  take  this  way. 

Cometh  it  not  thence,  from  your  lusts  ivhich  war  in  your  mem- 
bers ?  Most  assuredly ;  for  where  en^y  and  contention,  hatred 
and  discord,  are,  there  is  confusion  and  every  evil  work ;  the 
contention  or  the  discord  is  itself  the  evil  thing  which  exalts  itself 
against  the  order  of  God,  and  against  his  peace.  Consequently, 
also,  when  this  evil  thing  shows  itself  in  the  life,  envy  or  hatred 
must  be  in  the  heart :  whence  could  come  the  fruit,  Avithout  the 
seed  and  root  ?  Thus  the  fighting  among  you  springs  from  one 
cause,  Avhich  lies  in  you.  Let  no  man  say,  as  long  as  he  par- 
takes of  this  contentious  spirit  of  strife — I  am  tempted  and 
chiven  to  it  by  the  evil  world,  by  false  brethren,  by  contentious 
friends  and  neighbours.  Every  man  is  tempted  when  he  is 
dra\Am  away  of  his  own  lust  and  enticed.  Look  at  the  peojjle  of 
this  evil  world,  who  cannot  keep  peace  among  themselves  :  where- 
fore have  the  ungodly  no  peace  ?  Because  they  are,  each  in 
himself,  like  the  troubled  sea  which  cannot  be  at  rest,  but  casteth 
up  on  its  waves  the  mu'e  and  dirt  which  is  within  it  (Is.  Ivii. 
20,  21).  In  the  groimd  of  the  heart  there  is  selfishness,  which 
has  learned  nothing  of  the  better  and  enduring  inheritance 
(Heb.  X.  34) — and  therefore  avarice,  which  is  the  cause  of  a 
great  part  of  men's  contention.  Fiu'ther,  there  is  pride,  which 
has  not  yet  humbled  itself  before  God ;  and  thence  ambition  and 
despotism,  which  cannot  be  at  peace,  even  when  the  Mine  and 
Thine  are  not  concerned.  And  there  is  evil  self-love,  which  has 
in  it  absolutely  nothing  of  the  true  love  of  the  neighboiu" ;  and 
therefore  hating,  for  no  other  reason  than  because  bitte;-  hatred 
dwells  in  the  heart.  These  are  the  lusts  which  St  James 
means,  the  impulses  and  tendencies  of  the  flesh  which  for  ever 
urge  to  the  acquisition  of  this  world's  good,  the  enjo}'ment  of 
sensual  pleasure,  the  assertion  of  self-will ;  were  these  away, 
there  would  be  no  longer  strife  and  conteiition.     Is  this  evil 

2c 


402     WHENCE  C03IE  WARS  AND  FIGHTINGS  AMONG  YOU? 

principle  still  in  you  f  Many  can  through  God's  gi'ace  answer — 
Our  own  lust,  with  its  manifold  desires,  is  still  present  in  our  flesh, 
but  we  renounce  and  mortify  it  through  the  Spirit ;  therefore, 
while  disquiet  assaults  us  from  without,  we  still  strive  to  keep 
pc'ace,  as  far  as  in  us  Kes.  Well  for  you,  dear  brethren  !  But 
there  are  others,  and  they  are  many  more,  who  dare  not  in 
their  consciences  say  this  before  God ;  and  those  St  James  refers 
to.  AVhatever  kind  of  strife  and  contention  may  be  among  you, 
whatever  form  or  relation  it  may  assume  (for  there  are  disputes 
and  enmities  between  individuals  which  scarcely  break  out  in 
word,  but  instead  thereof  govern  the  whole  life  and  conduct)  — 
it  is  impossible  that  it  can  come  from  any  other  source  than  the 
lusts  of  your  flesh.  For  where  the  Spirit  dwelleth  in  us.  He  lusteth 
with  the  holy  impulse  of  love  against  all  hatred  (ver.  5). 

But  the  lusts  war  in  your  members,  in  the  body  of  sins,  in 
the  dispositions  and  motives  of  his  old  life.  This  does  not 
merely  mean,  as  it  may  be  first  understood,  that  there  they 
have  their  dwelling-place,  or  camp,  or  fortress,  whence  they  issue 
and  war  from  the  members — for  then  St  James  would  have  so 
expressed  himself.  He  will  rather  say.  Ye  are  not  at  one  in  yom- 
selves,  ye  have  in  your  inner  life,  not  peace,  but  war.  What 
kind  of  war  is  that  ?  First  of  all,  even  in  you,  in  whom  not- 
withstanchng  the  Spirit  dwelleth ;  so  that  the  fleshly  lusts  war 
against  the  soul,  fighting  against  your  nobler  part  and  true  self 
(1  Pet.  ii.  11),  Ye  have  delight  in  the  law  of  God,  the  royal 
law  of  love,  after  the  inner  man ;  but  that  other  law  in  your 
members  wars  against  the  law  of  your  mind,  and  bringeth  you 
into  captivity  (Eom.  vii.  22,  23).  Or,  if  in  the  I'egenerate  the 
soul  is  no  longer  in  captivity  to  this  law,  yet  it  has  not  altogether 
lost  its  power ;  it  conquers  sometimes,  and  in  some  instances, 
the  Spirit  within  you — and  hence  the  evil !  Finally,  the  many 
lusts  and  impulses  fight  among  themselves,  because  they  are  many 
and  varying :  for  example,  pride  and  caprice  may  desire  what 
avarice  and  self-intei'cst  may  shun ;  the  eye  may  aim  at  this, 
and  the  ear  prefer  that ;  so  that  ye  are  torn  asunder  AN-ithin, 
exasperated  by  endless  internal  contradictions  and  disap])oint- 
ments.  Examine  yourselves,  brethren,  and  detect  what  and 
how  much  of  this  is  still  in  you;  and  begin  afresh  the  (jood 
loarfare,  to  create  peace  icithin  yourselves  !  Do  you  not  know  what 
weapon  to  use  ?     The  word  of  God  is  put  into  om-  hands  for 


JAMES  IV.  1-3.  403 

the  external  conflict ;  and  for  internal  victory  over  self,  the  way 
of  •prayer  is  alone  sufficient. 

St. fames  in  the  second  word  proposes  to  us  this  true  hut  neglected 
xtiay  of  peace:  Ye  covet,  and  Aare  not ;  ye  envy  and  desire  to  have, 
but  cannot  obtain ;  yo  fight  and  war,  yet  ye  have  not,  because 
ye  ask  not  I  See  here  the  striking  picture  of  all  false  and  vain 
hunting  and  running  after  peace,  which  only  increases  the  dis- 
quiet ;  and  after  possession,  which  cannot  be  obtained  so  long  as 
the  only  true  way,  which  God's  word  points  out,  is  passed  by 
and  neglected.  One  Apostle  tells  us  to  follow  peace  with  all 
men !  (Heb.  xii.  14),  and,  in  another  place,  to  flee  youthful 
lusts,  but  follow  after  righteousness,  faith,  love,  peace !  (2  Tim. 
ii.  22).  Similarly,  another  quotes  from  the  Old  Testament :  He 
that  will  love  life,  and  see  good  days,  let  him  eschew  evil  and 
do  good;  let  him  seek  peace,  and  follow  after  it  (1  Pet.  iii.  11). 
But  how  different  is  this  way  from  that  restless  and  vehement 
pursuit  of  the  objects  of  lust  which,  in  all  its  external  en'\^^- 
ings,  strifes,  contentions,  and  wars,  after  all  seeks  only  content- 
ment within,  but  can  never  find  it !  The  peace  of  the  soul  within 
itself  is  found  only  in  God,  and  only  from  that  can  proceed 
peace  with  our  neighbour:  but  this  is  a  gift  and  grace  from 
above,  which  therefore  must  be  attained  in  prayer.  Instead  of 
that,  ye  seek  it  foolishly — thus  St  James  addresses  all  who  are 
concerned — out  of  yourselves,  and  independently  of  the  true  gift 
of  God  ;  ye  think  that  this  or  that  or  something  else  may  help 
you  to  attain  contentment.  In  that  consists  the  delusion  of  lust, 
which  should  beguile  and  hurry  hither  and  thither  only  the 
blind  world.  Only  therefore  of  that  world  St  James'  word 
holds  good,  in  its  fullest  sense  and  most  fearful  truth.  Ye  are 
fidl  of  desire  for  much  and  many  things,  which  ye  would  fain 
have  because  your  lust  promises  itself  therein  pleasure  and 
satisfaction ;  but  with  the  desire  alone  ye  have  it  not,  ye  only 
feel  bitterly  your  not  having.  This  is  the  first  thing,  and  then 
another  follows".  Because  others  around  you  have  that  whicli 
your  desire  covets,  your  evil  mind  begins  to  hate  and  envy ;  for 
every  selfish  desire  by  its  very  nature  is  a  spirit  of  envy  against 
others.  But  with  that  ye  cannot  yet  obtain  :  then  ye  begin  to 
break  faith  in  word  and  deed,  ye  Jiaht  and  icar,  contend,  go  to 
law ;  ye  pour  contumely  on  your  neighbour,  as  standing  in  your 
way;  ye  injure  him  in  your  displeasure,  as  if  ye  had  to  seek 


404     WHENCE  COME  WARS  AND  FIGHTINGS  AMONG  YOU  ? 

from  liim  what  is  wanting  in  yourselves ;  and  all  else  that  may 
be  supposed  to  follow  from  this.  But,  after  all,  it  is  as  it  was 
at  the  fii'st —  Ye  have  not !  There  comes  in  this  way  no  contented 
and  real  having  ;  for,  even  if  ye  gain  the  thing  ye  contend  for, 
ye  have  obtained  nothing  by  that,  ye  have  not  obtained  the  peace 
which  ye  sought  in  vain.  In  the  possession  ye  become  more  and 
more  assured  that  it  was  fallacious,  that  it  could  not  bring  peace  ; 
and  then  begins  anew  the  unrestful,  unsatisfied  desire.  Where- 
fore, then,  have  ye  not  with  all  your  having,  wherefore  do  ye 
not  obtain  with  all  your  unwearied  striving?  Because  the 
essential  matter  is  wanting,  the  gift  from  above,  which  alone  is 
Avorthy  to  be  called  a  having  in  peace.  That  comes  into  the 
heart  only  when  it  is  prayed  for,  but  ye  ash  not ;  that  ye  forget 
and  neglect,  although  the  word  of  God  so  graciously  invites  and 
attracts  you.  O  thou  unpeaceful,  envious,  and  contentious 
world,  be  easily  entreated,  and  learn  where  and  in  what  thou 
art  wanting !  Learn  to  humble  thyself  in  that  confession  which 
Daniel  uttered  for  the  unfaithful  people  of  God — Yet  made  we 
not  our  prayer  before  the  Lord  our  God,  that  we  might  turn 
from  our  iniquities,  and  understand  Thy  truth  (Dan.  ix.  13). 

But  if  ye,  who  call  yourselves  believers,  if  ye  who  would  be 
Christians,  are  condemned  by  St  James'  convincing  preaching, 
through  having  diverged  from  the  right  way — how  exceedingly 
evil  is  that !  Hear,  and  suffer  the  word  of  admonition  and  in- 
struction. Your  fighting  and  warring  also  proceeds  only  from 
hatred  and  envy ;  and  that  again  proceeds  only  from  the  per- 
verted lusts  and  desires  of  the  heart.  And  what  is  that  way, 
which  ye  have  long  known  ?  Ask  for  grace  in  order  to  the  re- 
nunciation of  all  false  desire,  and  ye  shall  have  that'  best,  in- 
ternal peace,  and  be  able  then  to  keep  peace  also  with  all  around. 
And  for  all  that  concerns  the  necessity  of  the  bodily  life,  let 
your  desire  take  the  way  of  prayer  to  God.  Be  careful  for  no- 
thing, but  in  everything  let  yoiu'  requests  be  made  known  unto 
God  (Phil.  iv.  6).  Contend  and  war  about  nothing  ;  ask  only  ; 
and  ye  shall  receive. 

But  some  of  those  who  are  thus  rebuked  and  condemned 
repel  the  charge,  being  ready  to  fight  boldly  against  the  word  of 
God — "But  we  pray,  and  yet  do  not  receive!"  St  James 
gives  them  finally,  the  true.ansicer  to  all  such  self-justif  cation,  that 
no  man  may  escape  him  : — Ye  ask  and  receive  not,  because  ye 


JAMES  IV.  1-3.  405 

ask  a7niss.  This  is,  at  the  same  time,  the  most  convincing  and 
universal  answer  for  all  who  complain  that  their  prayer  is  vain 
and  unanswered.  Sure  it  is  that  he  who  asks  receives ;  this 
word  of  God  is  firm  as  a  rock,  and  can  never  fail.  But  we 
must  pray  aright,  as  God  requires ;  not  amiss,  not  so  that  God 
must  refuse  to  admit  that  it  is  prayer.  Much  might  here  be 
said  generally  concerning  the  prayer  that  is  heard ;  that  it  must 
be  earnest  and  sincere  between  us  and  oiu:  God,  that  it  must  be 
humble  and  penitent  as  becometh  sinners  seeking  grace,  and 
that  it  must  be  confident  on  the  ground  of  the  Divine  promise. 
But  St  James,  while  he  lays  down  the  general  position,  gives  it 
a  specific  apphcation. 

In  cli.  i.  6,  he  had  said — Let  him  that  asketh  ask  in  faith 
and  doubt  not ;  but  now  he  turns  to  the  other  side  of  evil  and 
improper  praying,  which  cannot  be  of  faith  because  it  is  not 
ordered  according  to  the  word  and  will  of  God.  He  points  us 
to  the  false  design  of  our  supposed  petition  before  God,  that  of 
which  the  Psalmist  said — If  I  regard  iniquity  in  my  heart,  the 
Lord  will  not  hear  me  (Ps  Ixvi.  18).  He  provokes  us  to  examin- 
ation of  the  crround  of  our  heart — for  ivhat  and  to  what  end  we 
have  prayed,  in  our  unanswered  prayers.  For  what  ought  I  to 
pray?  For  all  that  I  really  lack  in  body  and  soul  —  our 
heavenly  Father  will  give  His  children  all  that  they  have  need 
of  (Matt.  vi.  8) — but  not  for  all  that  I  desire  !  Take  all  thy 
desire  in  prayer  to  God — it  had  been  said  before.  But  now  it 
is  added — Then  wilt  thou  see  and  know  whether  it  be  in  God's 
presence  lawful  and  pure  desire,  or  sinful  lust.  Therefore  most 
of  those  who  desire  pray  not,  because  they  already  feel  thkt  they 
are  repelled.  But  others,  and  these  are  worst  of  all,  are  so 
blinded,  and  have  so  perverted  the  piety  which  taught  them 
once  to  pray,  that  they  actually  pray  with  their  lusts  and  for 
their  lusts.  This  thing  and  that,  which  they  would  fain  have, 
must  God  give  them  ;  they  are  aggrieved  if  He  gives  it  not ; 
and  become  all  the  more  envious  and  contentious,  when  their 
praying  has  been  of  no  avail.  How  many  prayers  does  God 
hear,  to  which  the  Spirit  must  reply,  for  those  who  hear,  in  the 
right  answer  which  Plis  voice  gives— Whei'e fore  and  to  what 
end  do  ye  seek  this  ?  St  James  here  gives  the  answer  to  us — 
To  this  end,  that  ye  may  consttme  it  according  to  your  lusts.  One 
desires  earthly  good,  that  he  may  carnally  enjoy  it ;  another — 


40G      WHENCE  COME  AVARS  AND  FIGHTINGS  AMONG  YOU? 

for  example,  the  orthodox  maker  of  divisions — "would  have  powei 
and  consideration,  the  victory  of  his  doctrine  and  opinion,  that 
he  may  sinfully  exalt  himself ;  others  ask  for  recovery  from 
sickness,  or  relief  in  distress,  but  only  that  they  may  uninter- 
ruptedly live  on  as  before.  We  m'ust  not  interpret  this  expres- 
sion merely  of  the  actual  squandering  of  the  good  things  prayed 
for  ;  but  generally  of  that  ajyplication  and  use  of  what  is  sought 
in  carnal  desire,  which  is  most  certainly  no  other  than  a  wasting 
of  it.  Not  merely  is  every  external  thing  so  created  that  it 
perishes  in  our  hands,  or  in  the  using  (Col.  ii.  22) — but,  gene- 
rally, that  which  we  have  not  and  are  not  in  God  is  presently 
diverted  elsewhere,  and  continues  not. 

Ask,  above  all,  and  in  all,  for  the  good  which  Christ  brings, 
and  then  ye  ask  not  amiss  :  then  will  true  peace  dwell  in  your 
hearts,  households,  and  lives  ;  then  will  the  warring  lusts  which 
engender  hatred  and  envy,  fighting  and  war,  be  suppressed. 
Those  who  are  beginning  to  pray  are  not  rigorously  dealt  with 
by  God,  if  they,  in  unconscious  impurity  of  desire,  ask  for  indi- 
vidual blessings  whicli  must  be  denied  ;  for  He  would  graciously 
attract  them,  that  they  may  learn  better  and  better  for  what 
they  should  ask.  But  you,  who  have  known  what  it  is  to  seek 
and  find  grace,  if  you  would  pervert  your  access  to  God  accord- 
ing to  the  flesh,  must  at  least  be  repelled,  if  not  most  severely 
condemned,  in  so  doing. 

Finally,  they  cannot  escape  the  word  of  St  James,  who  sup- 
plicate even  spiritual  good  and  the  gifts  of  gi'ace  for  fleshly  use. 
This  is  the  most  secret  cunning  of  the  evil  heart ;  let  him  who 
finds  it  in  himself,  ab^se  himself  to  the  lowest  point.  Dost  thou 
ask  loisdom  from  God,  as  St  James  teaches,  but  not  for  thine  own 
salvation,  and  thy  perseverance  in  trial  — rather  that  thou  mayest 
exhibit  before  others  thy  wisdom,  thy  Scripture-knowledge,  thy 
penetration  into  the  counsels  of  God  ?  Then  wilt  thou  not 
receive,  but  be  given  over  to  the  errors  of  thy  folly.  Wouldst 
thou  receive  the  forgiveness  of -sins  for  false  consolation,  and  a 
delusive  pillow,  perverting  it  into  licentiousness  ?  That  would 
be  shamefully  consuming  it,  indeed  ;  and,  however  secretly  that 
may  insinuate  itself  into  tliy  request,  thy  asking  will  be  amiss 
and  in  vain.  Wouldst  thou  have  deliverance  from  trial,  peace 
of  sold,  but  only  to  have  and  enjoi/  it,  instead  of  using  it  to  the 
glory  of  God  in  thy  salvation — this  is  still  impure  desire ;  and 


JAMES  IV.  4-10.  407 

God  y\i\\  answer  thee  in  His  own  better  way,  by  plagues  and 
cliastisements,  until  tliou  fall  under  His  mighty  hand,  and  seek 
Him  and  His  will,  and  not  His  gifts.  But  when  this  last  and 
most  hidden  lust  of  the  flesh,  which  puts  on  so  spiritual  a  form, 
is  removed,  then  will  God's  peace  be  great  in  the  pure  soul. 


XXHI. 

CONVICTION  AND  ADMONITION  OF  THE  UNFAITHFUL. 

rCh.  iv.  4-10.) 

Ye  adulterers  and  adulteresses,  know  ye  not  that  the  friendship  of  the  world 
is  enmity  with  God  ?  whosoever  therefore  wiU  be  a  friend  of  the  world  is 
the  enemy  of  God.  Do  ye  think  that  the  Scripture  saith  in  vain,  The 
Spirit  that  dwelleth  in  us  lusteth  against  envy  ?  But  He  giveth  more 
grace.  Wherefore  He  saith,  God  resisteth  the  proud  but  giveth  grace 
unto  the  humble.  Submit  yourselves  therefore  unto  God  :  resist  the 
devil  and  he  will  flee  from  you.  Draw  nigh  to  God  and  He  will  di-aw 
nigh  to  you.  Cleanse  your  hands,  ye  sinners ;  and  purify  your  hearts, 
ye  double-minded.  Be  atflicted  and  mom'n  and  weep :  let  your  laughter 
be  turned  to  mourning,  and  your  joy  to  heaviness.  Humble  yoiu-selves 
in  the  sight  of  the  Lord,  and  He  shall  lift  you  up. 

St  James  now  seizes  the  other  side  of  that  unrighteous  and 
evil  condition  which  he  has  to  expose  and  condemn  ;  or,  rather, 
he  brings  up,  from  a  still  lower  depth,  a  second  answer  to  his 
own  question — Whence  cometh  this  ?  The  first  answer  was  ; — 
From  your  lusts,  which  ye  follow  instead  of  the  way  of  neglected 
prayer ;  or  the  sinful  desires  of  which  ye  mingle  with  your  evil 
prayer.  But  lohence  cometh  this  again  among  Christians,  who 
have  turned  to  the  Lord  in  faith,  in  the  Church  which  is  called 
by  His  holy  Name  1  What  is  this  but  declension  and  unfaith- 
fulness, a  breaking  of  the  covenant  of  love  and  peace,  in  the 
bonds  of  Avhich  His  people  should  have  no  other  desire  and 
design  than  His  good-pleasure  and  His  friendship  ?  Thus  he 
now  proceeds  f m'ther  to  address  those  who  have  become  unfaith- 
ful to  the  Lord,  whom  they  still  know  and  confess  ;  and  to  call 
them  back  to  Him  from  their  carnal  and  worldly  estate.  For 
he  has  to  do  with  brethren,  who  would  be  so  called,  whom  he  has 
previously  thus  addressed  (ch.  iii.  1-12),  and  whom  he  refers  to 


408    CONVICTION  AND  ADMONITION  OF  THE  UNFAITHFUL. 

again  as  such  (cli.  iv.  11).  These  forward  teachers  and  dispu- 
tants, these  unpeaceful  haters  and  enviers,  had  by  no  means 
relapsed  from  the  Church  into  Judaism  and  heathenism  ;  like 
many  now  who  are  not  Christ-like  in  spirit  and  life,  but  who 
yet  are  not  willing  to  depart  from  Chui'ch  ordinances  and  dis- 
cipline, maintaining  at  the  same  time  a  bond  of  connection  with 
the  Lord,  though  as  unfaithful  and  covenant-breakers.  This 
unfaithfulness  may  be  so  wicked  as  to  merit  the  sharp  words 
with  which  St  James  sets  out ;  but  there  are,  in  connection 
with  the  adulterers,  plenty  of  double-minded,  who  should  have 
their  due  portion  of  this  condemnation.  This  is  St  James' 
meaning,  when  he  addresses  now  the  one  and  now  the  other  in 
this  common  Ej)istle.  As  his  better  readers  would  not  lightly 
reject  anything  in  it,  which  might  seem  not  altogether  to  suit 
themselves,  so  let  us  in  our  day  in  svich  a  manner  distribute  the 
word  of  truth  that  each  may  have  his  fit  portion.  Let  us  hear 
how  St  James  first  keenly  rebukes  the  unfaithful,  and  then 
urgently  and  plainly  shows  them  the  way  to  conversion. 

The  sharp  condemnation  begins  at  once —  Ye  adulterers  and 
adulteresses  !  A  hard  word  of  guilt  and  shame,  even  if  it  refer- 
red only  to  those  sins  of  the  flesh  which  the  words  ordinarily 
denote — the  breakin<T  of  the  bond  of  marriaiTC  amono-  men. 
Although  even  in  our  own  day  there  may  be  much  more  secret 
adultery  manifest  to  God  in  Cliristian  communities  than  is  gene- 
rally thought — what  man  would  be  able  to  endure  the  public 
rebuke  of  being  an  adulterer,  and  what  woman  that  of  being  an 
adulteress  ?  But  that  is  but  a  slight  thing  in  comparison  of  the 
sin  which  St  James  means.  He  uses  the  word  in  the  same 
sense  as  that  in  which  the  Prophets  used  it,  when  they  con- 
demned Israel's  apostasy ;  as  that  in  which  the  Lord  Jesus  used 
it,  when  He  rebuked  the  wicked  and  adulterous  spirit  of  His 
generation  (Matt.  xii.  39),  and  when  again,  with  reference  to 
the  future  of  His  people.  He  spoke  of  an  adulterous  and  sinful 
generation  before  which  no  disciple  must  be  ashamed  of  Him 
and  His  words,  who  would  not  that  the  returning  Son  of  man 
should  be  ashamed  of  him  (Mark  viii.  38).  An  evil  race  are 
all  men  by  nature  ;  but  wicked  and  adulterous  those  only  can 
be  called  avIio  belong  to  the  people  of  God,  and  yet  live  carnally 
and  after  the  course  of  the  world.  St  James  explains  himself 
more  clearly,  when  he  continues — Know  ye  not,  that  friendship 


JAMES  IV.  4-10.  409 

'^\-ith  the  world  is  enmity  with  God  ?  He  that  will  he  a  friend 
of  the  world,  will  be  an  enemy  of  God  !  All  that  is  in  the 
w^orld  embraces  more  than  mere  Mammon,  concerning  which 
Christ  similarly  says  that  we  cannot  serve  God  and  Mammon 
together ;  it  is  jwssessions,  lust,  and  honour,  avarice,  pleasure, 
pride,  wdiich  cannot  consist  with  the  love  of  the  Father,  accord- 
ing to  an  Apostle's  well-known  saying  (1  John  ii.  15, 16).  There 
is  no  new  pi'eaching  upon  this  point ;  for  those  who  are  now 
addressed,  Knoio  ye  not  ?  are  very  well  acqiaainte-d  with  their 
lusts  and  adulterous  ways,  but  do  not  want  to  know  and  thhik 
nbout  them.  Yea,  ye  unfaithful  and  fallen  ones,  who  commit 
whoredom  with  the  world  and  yet  would  be  Christians — God 
has  received  you  into  His  covenant,  and  ye  have  not  utterly 
renounced  this  covenant,  or  thrown  away  yom^  Christian  name. 
But  think  what  that  name  imports  !  Your  God  would  have 
your  heart,  your  whole  heart,  and  therefore  your  whole  life,  and 
thought,  and  desire,  for  His  pure  and  holy  love ;  only  because 
He  so  deeply  desires  to  make  you  happy  in  that  love,  does  He 
so  zealously  deal  with  youi-  souls,  to  win  them  from  the  world. 
Have  ye  not,  many  of  you,  in  actual  conversion  of  the  heart 
yielded  up  yourselves  to  Him,  and  renounced  all  sin  and  vanity, 
all  the  sinful  lusts  and  desires  of  this  world  ?  "  God  is  faith- 
ful ;  on  His  part  this  covenant  is  always  sure."  But,  on  that 
very-  account,  ye  should  not  break  it !  Christians,  how  stands  it 
with  you  ?  Does  St  James'  word  touch  you  or  not  ?  God's 
Spirit  ought  thus  to  dwell  in  you,  ought  to  rule  and  direct  you 
in  the  way  which  is  opposed  to  the  way  of  the  world.  At  least 
the  Scripture,  which  ye  hold  and  know,  thus  speaketh,  and  thus 
only. 

Or  do  ye  persuade  yourselves  that  the  Scripture  in  vain  saitJi 
— The  Spirit  that  dwelleth  in  us  lusteth  against  envy? — We 
shall  not  enter  into  the  discussions  of  the  learned,  as  to  the 
passage  of  Scripture,  or  (which  can  hardly  be  thought)  the 
passage  in  St  Paul's  Epistles,  which  St  James  here  cites  in  its 
tnie  meaning.  Literally  these  words  occur  no  Avhere,  and  I 
think  that  no  specific  passage  is  referred  to ;  but  it  means  that 
the  whole  of  Scripture  testifies,  in  many  places,  that  God's 
Spirit  dwells  in  His  people,  and  that  this  Divine  Spirit  with  a 
pure  and  holy  desire  or  lusting  Avithstands  all  the  hatred  and 
envv  of  the  sinful  natm'e.     The  carnal  or  natiural  mind  is  an 


410     CONVICTION  AND  ADMONITION  OY  THE  UNFAITHFUL. 

enmiti/  against  God,  a  hatred  of  His  holy  love.  But  ye  are  not 
carnal,  ye  are  spiritual,  if  God's  Spirit  dioell  in  you.  But  he 
that  hath  not  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  is  none  of  His  (Rom.  viii. 
7,  9).  Whosoever  hath  this  Spirit  must,  as  all  Scripture  de- 
clares, be  internally  conscious  of  the  same  contradiction  and 
warfare  which  exists  without  between  God  and  the  world.  For 
the  flesh  lusteth  against  the  Spirit,  and  the  Spirit  against  the 
flesh;  and  these  are  contrary  the  one  to  the  other  (Gal.  v.  17). 
But  why  does  St  James  say  expressly  against  hatred  or  envy  ? 
Because  the  impulse  and  will  of  the  flesh  must  be  especially 
manifested  in  its  contrariness  to  the  love  and  peace  of  God ; 
hence  in  the  passage  in  which  St  Paul  is  opposing  the  works  of 
the  flesh  to  the  fruits  of  the  Spirit,  most  of  his  words  tend  that 
way — Enmity,  hatred,  en^y,  wrath,  strife,  contention,  emula- 
tions, murder  (Gal.  v.  20).  St  James  has  had  here  particularly 
to  do  with  bitter  envy  and  hatred  in  the  heart,  and  with  the 
thence  resulting  strife  and  war  among  Christians.  All  this 
should  be  only  in  the  world,  in  which,  however  it  may  be  glossed 
over  or  veiled  in  deceit,  the  Preacher's  word  holds  good — A  man 
is  envied  of  his  neighbour  (Eccles.  iv.  4).  All  the  love  of  the 
world  is  selfishness  and  selfseeking,  consequently  in  its  principle, 
hatred  and  envj :  this  is  the  evil  love  of  nature  and  its  wicked 
lust,  against  which  the  Spirit  from  God,  the  Spirit  of  pure  and 
genuine  love  testifies  and  is  zealous.  Or,  is  there  none  of  this 
found  in  you  ?  Have  ye  no  part,  or  no  longer  any  part,  in  the 
words — The  Spirit  which  dwclleth  in  us  —  ?  Yet,  the  testimony 
abidies  for  you  in  Scripture ;  this  its  word  couAacts  you  from 
Avitliout,  and  even  that  is  a  condemnation  of  the  Spirit.  Do  ye 
think,  who  have  the  Scripture  and  for  whom  it  speaketh,  that 
it  speaketh  thus  to  you  in  vain  ?  that  it  is  not  truth,  and  most 
solemn  truth?  Woe,  woe,  if  iinder  the  grace  of  the  New 
Testament,  that  ancient  cry  of  the  Lord  is  renewed  for  you — 
;Men,  even  Christian  men,  will  not  suffer  My  Spirit,  My  word,  to 
convict,  rebuke,  and  teach  them  ! 

The  word  of  the  S})irit,  which  points  to  the  Spirit  in  the 
heart,  has  in  it  a  gi'eat  promise ;  it  is  a  word  of  grace.  This 
Avord,  or  God  who  speaketh  in  it,  givetli  grace  7'icldy.  The 
Gospel  announces  how  God  would  show  in  us  the  exceed- 
in  o;  abundance  of  the  riches  of  His  c;race,  through  His  good- 
ness  towards  us  in  Christ  Jesus  (P^ph.  ii.  7).     Literally,  it  is 


JAMES  IV.  4-]0.  411 

(jreater  grace ;  that  is,  not  only  great,  but  increasingly  and  ever 
greater  grace,  in  proportion  as  v/e  believe  the  word  and  follow 
the  Spirit.  Assuredly  therefore,  something  greater  and  better 
than  all  which  the  alluring,  lying  world  promises  and  gives. 
To  receive  grace  from  God  is  in  itself  the  infinitely  greater 
thing,  in  comparison  of  all  that  is  great.  But  to  lohom  does 
God  give  grace,  and  to  whom  indeed  not?  The  Scripture 
saith,  again,  in  many  places,  especially  in  a  sapng  of  the  Avise 
Solomon,  which  St  James  here,  like  St  Peter,  quotes — Surely 
He  scorneth  the  scorners,  He  resisteth  the  proud,  hut  he  giveth 
grace  unto  the  loivly  (1  Pet.  v.  5 ;  Pro  v.  iii.  34).  What  a  plain, 
deep,  and  mighty  word  of  the  Spirit  which  convicts  all  sin  and 
directs  the  sinner  into  the  plain  and  sure  way  of  peace  !  What 
a  testimony  of  God,  piercing  the  heart  and  conscience,  in- 
telligible to  all  and  yet  never  to  be  exhausted,  combining  in  one 
the  Old  Testament  and  the  New,  all  preaching  of  repentance 
and  consolation  of  grace,  the  first  call  and  the  last  admonition, 
essentially  all  in  itself !  He  that  heareth  this  in  vain  knows 
nevertheless  that  it  is  true.  Mark  this  word,  ye  adulterers  and 
adulteresses,  that  ye  may  be  made  wise  by  it,  and  learn  the 
Avay  of  your  conversion ;  and  think  not  that  the  Scriptm'e  saith 
this  in  vain  J 

But  is  this  great  word,  and  all  that  St  James  adds  to  it, 
needless  to  us  who  through  the  grace  of  God,  received  and 
retained,  have  remained  on  the  whole  faithful,  and  have  not  so 
entirely  turned  away  to  friendship  and  fellowship  with  the 
world  ?  Is  this  great  word,  and  all  that  St  James  adds,  needless 
to  us?  Can  we  think  that  to  us  the  address  should  be — Ye, 
my  beloved  and  faithful  brethren,  wholly  sanctified,  need  no 
longer  more  grace  ?  Alas,  that  would  place  us  all  at  once  among 
the  proud  and  false,  not  the  humble  and  sincere.  Indeed, 
there  is  a  distinction  between  livinjT  in  full  and  continued 
adultery  and  the  occasional  decline  from  tender  and  entire  fidelity: 
— }'et  is  not  every  act  of  infidelity  a  breaking  of  the  covenant, 
and  deserving  of  severest  punishment?  We,  who  think  Ave 
know  that  the  friendship  of  God  and  that  of  the  Avorld,  the  lusts 
of  the  flesh  and  of  the  spirit,  are  contradictory  and  opposed-— 
are  Ave  in  deed  and  truth  quite  disscA-ered  from  the  Avorld,  and 
perfectly  obedient  to  the  Spirit  A\'ho  dAA'elleth  in  us  ?  Is  there 
among  us  no  Aibration,  or  bias  toAvards  the  one  side  as  Avell  as 


412     CONVICTION  AND  ADMONITION  OF  THE  UNFAITHFUL. 

the  other'?  Are  we  so  firm  and  faithful  in  the  covenant,  that 
there  is  no  spot  or  stain  to  be  found  in  us  ?  Brethren,  how 
much  shrinking  from  the  cross  of  Christ  does  the  Spirit  see  to 
rebuke  in  us,  how  much  hanging  upon  the  Avorld  and  compro- 
Tiise  with  it  is  still  remaining  within  vas  !  How  often  must  the 
Saviour  still  cry  unto  our  consciences — Ye  are  My  friends,  if  ye  do 
whatsoever  I  command  you !  (Jno.  xv.  14) — but  not  My  friends, 
if  ye  do  what  ye  will,  and  what  the  world  requires !  Who  is 
there  that  can  confidently  enter  into  the  Apostle's  word,  with 
reference  to  his  whole  spirit  and  walk — If  I  yet  pleased  men, 
I  should  not  be  the  servant  of  Christ !  (Gal.  i.  10).  Therefore, 
at  least  be  warned :  He  who  will  not  in  any  point  be  at  issue 
with  the  world,  must  be  in  that  at  issue  with  God,  and  become 
soon  His  enemy  again  !  Be  on  your  guard  lest  the  Spirit  should 
speak  to  you  any  of  His  words  in  vain ;  resist  not  the  Spirit 
who  dwelleth  in  you !  Your  faithful  covenant-God  is  tenderly 
jealous  of  your  perfect  fidelity;  He  would  give  you  greater, 
and  still  greater  grace,  than  any  you  have  yet  received.  Greater 
than  ye  conceive  in  your  weakness,  to  present  you  at  last  fault- 
less before  His  own  face.  But,  until  that  high  goal  is  reached, 
you  must  hear  that  same  word  concerning  pride  and  humility 
by  which  St  James  has  begun  to  show  the  way  of  return  from 
infidelity. 

Hear  further  how  in  the  second  part  of  this  present  section 
he  urgently  and  explicitly  pioints  out  tJiis  way  of  return  to  God. 
He  has  sharply  rebuked,  and  now  calls  and  invites  them  to 
come  back;  affectionately  indeed,  but  with  all  that  solemn 
severity  which  is  due  to  the  fearful  peril  of  departing  from  the 
living  God.  The  grace  and  graciousness  of  the  appeal  appears 
in  this  of  itself,  that  the  faithful  God  will  receive  the  returned 
adulterers  when  they  come.  That  which  he  forbade  by  Moses 
to  His  people,  in  His  more  abundant  grace  and  kindness  He 
Himself  does ;  as  we  hear  in  the  Prophet :  "  If  a  man  put 
away  his  wife,  and  she  go  from  him,  and  become  another  man's, 
shall  he  return  to  her  again  ?  Thou  hast  played  the  harlot  with 
many  lovers ;  yet  return  again  to  Me,  saith  the  Lord"  (Jer.  iii. 
1).  He  gives  His  apostate  people  no  bill  of  divorcement,  that 
He  might  put  them  away  (Isa.  1.  1).  And  thus  His  servant 
James  preaches  afresh :  Be  ye  therefore  subject  to  God ;  resist 
the  devil,  and  he  will  flee  from  you  /     St  James  speaks,  as  we 


JAMES  IV.  4-10.  413 

have  heard,  of  an  evil  and  deceitful  icorkl;  he  speaks  of  his 
own  lust  which  seduces  every  sinner ;  but  he  speaks  also  of  a 
devil,  who  is  the  prince  and  god  of  this  world,  who  excites  men's 
lusts  and  fans  the  flame  of  hell  in  their  hearts.  Satan  is  the 
prime  and  most  perfect  enemy  of  God,  the  beginner  and  finisher 
of  all  lyride  leading  to  apostasy  from  the  Supreme,  to  whom  all 
things  should  be  suhmisslve.  He  is  the  tempter  to  all  dis- 
obedience, the  ruler  and  perverter  in  all  unfaithfvdness ;  he 
holds  out'  to  fools  the  lure  of  freedom  in  their  pleasures  when 
they  continue,  or  become  again,  his  slaves,  caught  in  his  snares 
unto  destruction  (2  Tim.  ii.  26).  They  who  know  nothing  of 
the  devil  are  most  surely  under  his  power.  But  the  Scriptui'e 
tells  us  the  truth  of  God's  faithfulness ;  it  lays  bare  the  de- 
ception, points  out  the  enemy,  and  tells  us  that  we  may  and 
that  we  must  resist  him.  For  God  sues  for  our  souls,  that  He 
may  rescue  them  from  ruin ;  for  them  there  is  the  great  con- 
test between  God  and  the  devil.  He  who  luill  escape  from  the 
devil,  may  do  so ;  Christians  most  certainly  have  received  the 
grace  of  God  which  declares — For  this  purpose  the  Son  of 
God  Avas  manifested,  that  He  might  destroy  the  works  of  the 
devil !  (1  John  iii.  8).  Now,  ye  adulterers  and  adulteresses, 
will  ye  wilfully  run  into  the  snares  of  the  devil,  or  will  ye  be 
the  ransomed  possession  of  God,  unto  the  praise  of  His  glory  ? 
(Eph.  i.  14).  But  ye  must  be  subject  to  God !  For  there  is 
no  other  bond  of  love  and  grace  between  God  and  His  creature, 
no  other  friendship  with  God,  than  that  which  consists  in 
obedience  to  God's. commands.  Thus  Abraham  in  his  obedient 
submission  was  called  the  friend  of  God ;  and  fidelity  to  God 
in  every  one  is  simply  the  obedience  of  faith.  Submit  your- 
selves anew,  then,  ye  rebels  ;  humble  before  God,  stand  up 
with  new  earnestness  against  the  devil,  who  misleads  you  in 
your  pride  !  And  let  us,  whom  he  ever  seeks  to  lay  hold  of 
though  we  know  him,  whom  he  seeks  to  devour,  if  not  with 
roaring  yet  with  cunning,  to  turn  away  our  mind  from  sim- 
plicity (2  Cor.  xi.  3) — let  us  withstand  him  unto  final  victory, 
stedfastly  believing  in  the  power  of  that  ever-increasing  grace 
which  is  offered  us  !  He  that  is  born  of  God  keepeth  himself, 
and  that  wicked  one  toucheth  him  not !  (1  John  v.  18).  Fall 
not  into  the  frightful  folly  of  too  many  insincere  Christians, 
who  impute  all  their  sins  and  unfaithfulness  to  the  devil;  and  say 


414     CONVICTION  AND  ADMONITION  OF  THE  UNFAITHFUL. 

tliat  It  was  Ids  work,  when  in  truth  their  o^^^l  flesh  and  their  own 
heart  o;ave  heed  to  him  and  save  hiui  room.  From  him  who 
resists  him  through  God,  hejleeth :  that  is  everlastingly  true.  Not 
indeed  that  one  victory  drives  him  to  final  flight ;  he  returns 
again  and  again,  sometimes  immediately  after  the  most  shame- 
ful defeat.  But  he  must  fly,  again  and  again,  whenever  he 
encounters  that  one  word — Thou  shalt  worship  the  Lord  thy 
G.od,  and  Him  only  shalt  thou  serve,  to  Him  alone  be  subject ! 
Before  him  who  thus,  in  and  with  God,  resisteth  him,  he  fleetli 
as  before  the  Almighty  God  Himself.  But  he  who  is  tempted 
by  Satan  to  lift  himself  proudly  against  the  Supreme  will  fi.nd 
that  God  must  resist  him,  and  all  that  is  devilish  in  him,  even  as 
He  resisteth  the  devil  himself.  Then  is  it  with  the  Church  of 
Christ  as  with  the  ancient  peoplfi  of  God.  "  He  said,  surely 
they  are  my  people,  childi'en  that  will  not  lie  :  so  He  was  their 
Saviour.  In  His  love  and  in  His  pity  He  redeemed  them  ;  and 
He  bare  them  and  carried  them  all  the  days  of  old.  But  they 
rebelled,  and  vexed  His  Holy  Spirit ;  therefore  He  was  turned 
to  be  their  enemy,  and  he  fought  against  them  "  (Isa.  Ixiii.  8-10.) 
Draw  not  nii>'h  then  to  the  devil ;  nive  him  not  advantage 
by  meeting  him  midway  with  your  lusts,  so  that  he  may  touch 
you  by  them.  Rather,  Draiv  nigh  to  God,  and  He  ivill  draw 
nigh  to  you  !  This  likewise  is  a  great  and  most  impressive  word, 
like  the  former ;  never  to  be  exhausted  in  preaching,  and  yet 
quite  enough  a  sermon  of  itself.  The  same  word  occurs  in  the 
prophet,  as  addressed  to  God's  ancient  people :  Retui'n  unto  me, 
salth  the  Lord  of  hosts,  and  I  will  return  unto  you  (Zech.  i.  3). 
And  when  God  thus  speakcth  to  us,  that  of  itself  is  His  OAvn 
first  drawino;  nlirh  to  us,  in  the  attraction  of  sollcltlnfii;  grace. 
Thus  doth  He  ever ;  and  when  we  begin  in  any  degree  to  hear 
and  to  come,  0  how  abundantly  He  responds,  and  comes  to 
meet  poor  sinners !  Who  among  us  has  not  experienced  this 
a  thousand  times  ?  Which  of  you,  ye  adulterers,  has  not  known 
this  in  past  experience,  or  knows  it  not  now  in  present  ?  Let  us 
draw  nigh  to  God,  Christians,  for  we  have  the  abundant  right 
of  access  in  Christ !  But,  not  like  His  ancient  people,  with  your 
lips  while  your  hearts  are  far  from  Him — with  true  and  sincere 
hearts,  rather,  as  is  fit  before  the  Alost  High.  What  then  imme- 
diately follows  in  the  presence  of  God?  Cleanse  your  hands,  ye 
sinners,  and  purify  your  hearts,  ye  douhle-minded.     Before  God 


JAMES  IV.  4-10.  415 

we  shall  know  what  we  are,  and  how  It  stands  with  us :  either 
sinners,  with  those  very  hands  which  we  would  lift  up  to  God, 
or  deceitful  and  unstable  in  heart.  To  the  former  God  cries — 
Your  hands  are  full  of  guilt ;  wash  you,  make  you  clean,  put 
away  the  evil  of  your  doings  from  before  Mine  eyes ;  cease  to  do 
evil !  (Is.  i.  15,  16).  The  latter  He  keenly  tests  and  reproves ;  to 
show  them  how  double-hearted  they  are,  how  double-souled ; 
and  with  wliat  divided  allegiance  and  imperfect  submission  and 
partial  faith  they  appear  before  Ilim.  Be  not  too  hasty  with 
David's  word  of  comfort ;  I  wash  mine  hands  in  innocency,  and 
so  compass,  Lord,  Thine  altar !  (Ps.  xxvi.  6).  Make  your  hearts 
clean ;  for  without  that  not  even  tlie  hands  are  pure. 

This  makes  us  all  sinners,  and  in  some  degree  double-minded; 
the  most  sincere  in  purpose  will  be  the  least  of  all  disposed  to  refuse 
to  confess  their  unfaithfulness.  Those  who  most  sincerely  draw 
nigli  to  God  will  be  most  profoundly  conscious  how  much  they 
still  need  that  greater  gi*ace.  But  He  giveth  it  to  the  humble, 
the  miserable,  the  penitent;  therefore  it  imports  all  in  their 
degree  to  receive  St  James'  call  to  conversion :  Where  there  is 
false  joy  and  laughter,  let  there  be  lamentation  !  Where  there 
is  still  pride  in  the  heart,  let  it  be  humbled  I 

Be  afflicted,  and  mourn,  and  iceep ;  let  your  laughter  he  turned 
to  heaviness,  and  your  joy  to  mourning.  This  is  the  word  which 
best  suits  the  adulterers  and  adulteresses,  who  deeply  need  to 
come  down  from  their  proud  and  lofty  elevation  into  a  state  of 
deeper  and  more  troubled  repentance :  sorrow  and  lamentation 
would  much  better  become  them  than  laughter.  Plear,  ye  blinded 
ones,  and  bow  down  your  hearts  to  good  counsel !  The  same 
Spirit  of  God  who  thus  exhorts  you  will  also  excite  a\  ithin  you 
sorrow,  and  give  you  tears,  if  ye  only  begin  to  yield  Him  His 
rights,  and  give  Him  room.  Yea,  begin  at  once  to  be  wise  !  Say 
unto  laughter,  Thou  art  mad !  and'  to  joy.  What  doest  thou  ? 
(Eccl.  ii.  2).  Did  ye  ever  experience  a  first  repentance  towards 
God,  ye  sinners — why,  then,  have  ye  forsaken  and  forgotten 
that  good  beginning,  and  fallen  into  the  miserable  delusion  of 
a  vain  joy?  Turn  back  to  the  first  sm*e  ground  of  your  cove- 
nant with  God ;  ye  have  indeed  double  reason  for  lamentation 
and  sorrow,  as  being  covenant-breakers,  and  fallen  souls.  Or, 
did  ye  never  thoroughly  enter  into  that  Divine  distress  Avithout 
which  at  the  beginning  there  can  be  no  complete  conversion 


416     CONVICTION  AND  ADMONITION  OF  THE  UNFAITHFUL. 

and  salvation  ?  Be  in  earnest  now,  at  the  last,  for  the  matter 
with  you  is  tremendously  earnest! — But  none  of  us  are  beyond 
tlie  necessity  of  sorrow  and  lamentation.  Our  progressive  sanc- 
tification,  after  grace  received,  does  not  go  on  in  a  proud  and 
secure  spirit :  we  must  often  go  back  to  that  original  sorrow  for 
sin ;  often  appear  before  the  throne  of  grace  with  the  lament- 
ing prayer  which  issues  from  a  broken  heart,  in  order  that  we 
may  receive  new  and  larger  measures  of  gi-ace.  And,  ye  double- 
minded,  especially,  more  or  less  divided  still  between  God  and 
the  world — if  ye  would  tni,ly  draw  nigh  to  God,  and  make 
pure  your  hearts,  how  can  that  otherwise  be  than  by  a  new 
repentance  1  Canst  thou  be  so  merry  and  satisfied,  as  if  all 
were  well  with  thee  1  or,  even  with  hypocritical  self-deception, 
make  thy  gladness  knoAvn  for  joy  in  the  Lord,  while  His  Spirit 
findeth  in  thee  so  much  to  rebuke  and  condemn  1  This  very 
perversion  of  all  right  feeling  should  be  matter  of  bitter  lamen- 
tation before  the  Lord !  Canst  thou  so  much  succumb  to  the 
flesh,  which  thou  shouldst  crucify,  as  to  be  heard  indulging  in 
over-loud  laughter  like  the  fools  (Ecclus.  xxi.  29 — whilst  thou 
wouldst  fain  be  reputed  wise  !  Canst  thou  now  and  then  forget 
utterly  that  that  laughter  of  fools  which  Solomon  calls  madness 
is  making  a  mock  at  sin  ;  and  find  tliy  pleasure  in  that  instead 
of  in  the  company  of  the  pious?  (Prov.  xiv.  9).  Art  thou  so 
little  under  the  discipline  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  art  thou  so  far 
gone  from  chastity  of  heart,  that  thou  canst  be  found  among 
the  children  of  the  world,  sharing  their  filthy  discoiu'se,  Avhich 
should  be  to  thee  irksome  wantonness?  (Ecclus.  xxvii.  13). 
Thou  hast  then  much  cause  to  weep  before  thy  Saviour's  face, 
to  change  thy  perilous  joy  and  merriment  into  mourning,  or,  as 
St  James'  word  strictly  means,  into  deeply  humbled  abasement. 
For  there  is  still  a  wretched  pride  in  thy  heart ;  but  as  long  as  that 
is  there,  thou  hast  not  ended  with  the  gi'eat  word  of  Scripture 
which  St  James  repeats  for  all  alike,  with  its  exhortation  and 
promise  conjoined — Humble  yourselves  before  the  Lord^  and  lie 
loill  lift  you  up. 

This  word  includes    all,  from   the  first  conversion  to  the 

consummation  of  holiness.     It  is  the  whole  plan  of  salvation  ; 

the  unvarying  and  abiding  rule  for  us  unto  whom  the  Lord  hath 

come,  who  know  Him,  who  belong  to  Him,  and  who  would  stand 

1  Not  as  Luther  read — Before  God. 


JAMES  IV.  11,  12.  417 

before  Him  at  the  last.  Humble  yourselves  in  repentance,  in 
obedience,  in  patience  !  The  first  cry  of  the  Lord  to  sinners  is, 
I  am  come  to  call  you  to  repentance.  Him  that  humbleth  him- 
self before  Plim,  He  exalts  at  once  with  the  grace  and  consola- 
tion of  forgiveness.  But  that  is  the  preparation  of  the  soul  for 
a  new  walk  in  obedience  ;  and,  as  far  as  that  is  wanting,  there 
is  the  constant  call  to  repentance.  Humble  thyself  truly  and 
altogether ;  subject  thy  desires,  thy  self-will,  thy  proudly  refrac- 
tory heart  to  obedience  in  His  Spirit :  when  He  ruleth  thee, 
thou  wilt  be  more  and  more  exalted  in  the  power  of  His  grace, 
in  order  to  the  siu'e  victoiy  over  sin,  the  world,  and  the  devil. 
But  thou  wilt  not  attain  to  that  without  discipline  from  within 
and  without,  discipline  wdiich  will  still  abase,  afflict,  and  bow  thee 
down.  Endure  all  this ;  humble  thyself  under  the  micjhty  hand 
of  God  ;  so  will  He  perfect  thy  obedience,  and  exalt  thee  in  His 
time  !  (1  Pet.  v.  6).  Let  that  pride  through  which  the  devil  fell, 
and  throush  which  he  would  cast  thee  down,  be  utterly  and 
entirely  abolished  in  thee :  so  that  thou  mayest  know  of  nothing 
but  humiliation  before  the  Lord,  who  so  deeply  humbled  Him- 
self for  thee.  So  shalt  thou  through  Him,  be  exalted,  who  saith 
not  in  vain  more  than  once,  "  He  that  exalteth  himself  shall  be 
abased  ;  but  he  that  humbleth  himself  shall  be  exalted ! " 


XXIV. 

EVIL  SPEAKING  AND  JUDGING. 

(Ch.  iv.  11,  12.) 

Speak  not  evil  one  of  another,  bretkren.  He  that  speaketh  evil  of  his  bro- 
ther, and  judgeth  his  brother,  speaketh  evil  of  the  law,  and  judgeth  the 
law  :  But  if  thou  judge  the  law,  thou  art  not  a  doer  of  the  law,  but  a 
judge.  There  is  one  lawgiver,  who  is  able  to  save  and  to  destroy :  who 
art  thou  that  judgest  another  ? 

Speak  not  evil  one  of  another  !  Another  of  those  exhortations 
which,  both  to  the  world  and  to  the  community  of  Christians,  are 
so  m'gently  necessary :  one,  therefore, which  in  a  variety  of  expres- 
sions often  occui's  in  the  sacred  Scriptui'es — from  the  ninth  com- 
mandment, and  the  many  exhortations  of  the  Prophets,  down 

2d 


418  EVIL  SPEAKING  AND  JUDGING. 

to  tlie  Lord's  most  weiglity  saying,  Judge  not !  and  the  apos- 
tolical exhortations  to  lay  aside  all  malice,  and  all  guile,  hypocri- 
sies, envies,  and  evil  speakings  (1  Pet.  ii.  1).  But  how  does  St 
James  reach  such  an  exhortation  here  ?  He  has  been  beseech- 
ing and  warning,  Humhle  yourselves  hefore  the  Lord  !  and  this 
now  follows  quite  consistently.  For,  that  sinful  and  unbecoming 
judgment  and  evil  speaking  has  always  flowed  from  the  pride 
which  refuses  to  be  humbled  before  the  Lord,  and  which  forgets 
its  own  guilt  before  the  supreme  and  only  Judge.  At  the  same 
time,  he  thus  returns  to  that  which  had  occupied  his  mind  since 
the  beginning  of  the  third  chapter — the  warning  against  sins 
of  the  tongue,  which  through  hatred  and  pride  lead  to  war  and 
contention.  He  has  spoken  in  ch.  iv.  1  of  strife  and  war  among 
brethren,  and  then  in  ver.  2  of  the  underlying  principle  of 
hatred  and  en\y :  to  the  same  chapter  certainly  belongs  that 
evil  speaking  and  judging  from  which  so  miich  disquiet,  alas, 
springs,  and  which  so  fatally  interrupts  brotherly  fellowship  and 
love.  Therefore  St  James  first  here  inserts  the  convincing  and 
mom-nfid  word,  after  the  previous  keen  address — Speak  not  evil 
one  of  another,  dear  brethren  ! 

What  is  that  evil  speaking  which  is  so  unbecoming  to  the  bre- 
thren, and  so  strictly  forbidden  by  the  word  and  Spirit  of  God  ? 
Surely  not  every  kind  of  speaking  against  the  sin  of  others ! 
If  one  summoned  to  bear  witness  of  the  truth  before  a  judge, 
appointed  to  do  right  in  the  place  of  God,  gives  sincere  testimony 
to  a  sin  which  has  been  committed,  in  order  to  its  being  punished, 
he  does  no  more  than  his  righteous  duty ;  and  the  effeminate 
weakness  which  would  conceal  the  truth  would  be  no  other  than 
sin.  When  a  minister  of  God,  who  should  not  merely  beseech 
ill  the  stead  of  Christ,  but  also  in  His  name  reprove  and  warn 
sinners,  discloses  the  secret  shamefitlness  of  sinners'  sins,  it  is 
only  part  of  his  faithful  duty,  and  he  would  himself  sin  if  he 
Avithheld  it.  When  the  preachca*  preaches,  according  to  his 
Lord's  commission — He  that  believeth  not  shall  be  damned ! 
and  says  to  every  man  who  will  not  come  to  God's  house,  in 
faithful  warning — Take  heed,  lest  thou  be  among  those  who  are 
condemned  !  no  man  can  object  to  him  that  he  is  assuming  the 
office  of  a  judge.  Nor  even  then,  Avhen  he  may  find  it  needful 
and  salutary  to  point  one  sinner  to  the  plain  example  of  anothei', 
that  he  may  in  him  see  himself  as  in  a  glass.     "Wlien  the  most 


JAJVIES  IV.  11,  12.  419 

humble  Christian,  without  special  office,  but  in  the  spirit  of  the 
common  Christian  vocation,  tells  an  erring  brother  the  truth  in 
love,  he  only  complies  with  the  apostolical  precept — Wherefore, 
putting  away  lying,  speak  everij  man  truth  with  his  neigh- 
bour :  for  we  are  members  one  of  another  (Eph.  iv.  25).  Can 
we  not,  and  sliould  we  not,  all  distingiush  between  Avhat  is  good 
and  what  is  evil  ?  Should  we  not  know,  through  the  word  and 
Spirit  of  God,  what  is  spiritual  and  what  is  carnal,  what  are  the 
works  of  the  old  man  and  ^^'hat  the  fruits  of  regeneration  ?  If 
we  are  thus  to  distinguish,  we  must,  indeed,  also  judge  the  per- 
sons in  whom  we  find  the  one  or  the  other  ;  we  must,  first  of  all, 
prove  and  judge  in  our  hearts  all  that  is  seen  in  oiu'  fellow-men. 
For  it  is  not  written  in  vain — Prove  all  things,  and  hold  fast 
that  which  is  good  !  (1  Thess.  v.  21).  Similarly — The  spirit- 
ual man  judgetli  all,  and  is  himself  judged  of  no  man  (1  Cor. 
ii.  15).  Fxu'ther,  we  may  and  we  must  utter  oiu'  judgment  in 
words,  when  it  is  necessary  for  others'  amendment,  or  when  we 
otherAvise  should  lie ;  true  judgment  and  testimony  against  our 
neighbour  is  in  itself  no  sin,  but,  on  the  contrary,  oftentimes  a 
duty.  For  it  is,  once  more,  not  written  in  vain — Woe  to  those 
who  call  evil  good  and  good  evil,  who  make  darkness  light  and 
light  darkness,  who  call  bitter  sweet  and  sweet  bitter !  (Is.  v. 
20).  St  James  might  therefore,  on  the  other  side,  teach  with 
equal  earnestness — Flatter  not,  and  play  not  the  h}^ocrite 
with  one  another,  dear  brethren !  It  is  necessary  that  I  should 
judge  in  my  heart,  in  order  to  keep  myself  from  evil,  and  hold 
fast  only  the  good ;  love  binds  me  to  rebul\:e  and  warn  my  bro- 
ther, in  order  that  I  may  mend  him  and  show  him  what  is 
good. 

But  quite  different  from  this  is  the  proud  and  wrathful 
rebuking  of  the  sin  of  another ;  and  worst  of  all  that  frequent  evil 
spealdng  which,  though  so  constantly  denounced,  is  the  source  of 
such  plentiful  disquiet.  In  that  a  man  speaks,  Avithout  vocation 
and  duty,  out  of  the  overflow  of  a  spiteful  mind,  to  one  concern- 
ing the  sin  of  another ;  evil  is  spoken  behind  the  brother's 
back,  instead  of  being  spoken  honestly  to  his  face.  Thus  in  the 
Apostle's  time  the  Gentiles  spoke  about  the  Christians  ;  they 
would  not  see  their  good  works,  but  spoke  evil  of  them  as  of 
evil-doers  (1  Pet.  ii.  12).  Thus  do  the  baptized  heathens  among 
ourselves    speak    against   the   godly,   of  Avhom  they  say  all 


420  EVIL  SPEAKING  AND  JUDGING. 

manner  of  evil  falsely.  If  this  is  found  among  those  who  would 
be  called  brethren,  the  Holy  Spirit  denounces  it  most  keenly ; 
and  teaches  Christians  absolutely  to  avoid  it,  even  in  speaking 
about  the  children  of  the  world.  Such  speaking  of  evil  can 
never  answer  the  question — Should  I  say  this  of  him,  when  he 
v/as  present  ?  Why  do  I  not  rather  say  it  to  himself  ?  For 
Avhat  purpose  am  I  saying  it  now? — In  this  there  is  no  obedi- 
ence to  duty,  no  design  of  love  ^  in  it  speaks  the  perverse,  for- 
ward, proud  mind ;  therefore  it  soon  passes  into  false  judgment, 
or  into  that  condemnation  which  is  forbidden,  even  when  the 
matter  may  be  true. 

This  is  what  St  James  means  when  he  goes  on — He  that 
speaketh  evil  of  his  brother,  and  judgeth  his  brother,  speaketh 
evil  of  the  law,  and  judgeth  the  law.  He  is  no  other  than  thy 
brother  against  whom  thou  speakest  in  thy  judgment :  this  he 
mentions  again  and  again,  with  something  of  the  severity  of 
that  word  of  the  Lord  to  Cain,  Where  is  thy  brother  ?  The  voice 
of  thy  brother's  blood — thy  brother's  blood  by  thine  hands ! 
Yea,  thy  brother  is  every  man  :  first,  as  being  thy  fellow-man  ; 
then,  as  being,  alas  !  thy  fellow-sinner,  thou  sinner ;  and  lastly, 
as  being  through  Christ  thy  fellow-redeemed.  In  every  view 
ye  are  alike,  and  stand  before  God  side  by  side,  when  sin  and 
judgment  or  grace  are  concerned.  But  thou,  with  thy  e\al  speak- 
ing, liftest  thyself  above  or  against  him,  as  if  thou  wert  his  lord 
and  god,  his  judge  !  Elsewhere,  the  Scriptiu'e  declares  that 
such  sinful  judging  on  the  part  of  man  inti'udes  into  the  office 
of  the  Most  High,  and  anticipates  the  verdict  of  the  last  day ; 
but  St  James,  who  throughout  his  Epistle  has  the  law  especially 
in  view,  says  yet  more  expressly — He  speaks  evil  of  the  law, 
and  judgeth  the  law.  And  this  is,  as  has  been  remarked  with 
force,  the  last  place  of  the  New  Testament  in  which  the  word 
"  law"  occm's.  What  means  it  then  to  speak  evil  of  the  law  ? 
We  observe  at  once,  that  the  expression  is  a  strange  one,  adopted 
for  the  sake'  of  the  striking  parallel ;  and  it  seems  to  mean — 
Such  a  man,  improperly  and  officiously  noting  and  dealing  Avith 
the  sins  of  other  men,  throws  blame  thereby  upon  the  law  of 
God,  as  if  it  were  not  sufficient ;  for  he  acts  as  if  he  supposed 
it  necessary  to  come  to  the  help  of  the  law.  Consequently,  he 
speaks  evil  of  the  law ;  to  wit,  that  it  is  too  weak  and  inert, 
unless  he  should  also  use  his  diligence.     But  it  is  not  so,  dear 


JAMES  IV.  11,  12.  421 

brethren !  Reflect,  that  the  law  is  at  least  in  Christendom  every- 
where taught  and  preached  abundantly,  so  that  young  and  old 
know  it  well.  If  thou,  on  thy  part,  dost  exhibit  to  men  in  thy 
own  conversation  the  fulfilment  of  the  law ;  and,  moreover,  in 
all  such  cases  as  impose  it  upon  thee  as  a  duty,  dost  assist  the 
pastors  and  preachers  with  thy  words,  as  a  servant  and  witness 
for  God, — thou  doest  all  that  can  be  done.  Then  let  people  hear 
and  obey,  or  not :  God  will  vindicate  His  own  commandments  by 
discipline  and  punishment,  by  teaching  and  testimony  in  all  His 
ordinances,  as  by  His  Spirit  in  the  conscience.  The  law  is  admin- 
istered by  its  appointed  officials,  who  preach  it  to  Christians  as 
a  law  of  liberty,  or  make  transgressors  feel  it  as  a  law  of  civil 
right  and  restraint.  If  thou  art  a  judge,  a  master,  a  teacher  or 
parent,  a  preacher  or  overseer  of  any  souls,  perform  the  function 
of  thine  office,  without  evil  speaking.  But  be  content  with  that, 
and  do  not  go  beyond,  as  if  it  were  not  merely  written — Prove 
all  things,  and  hold  fast  that  lohich  is  good,  but  also — Pi'ove  all 
things,  and  point  out  all  that  is  evil,  speak  of  it,  that  others  may 
know  all  about  it !  Or,  as  if  the  sentence  prescribed,  what  it 
does  not,  however,  prescribe — Prove  all  men,  and  have  them 
before  your  judgment-seat !  Reveal  and  mark  them  with  words, 
if  with  nothing  more  !  How  many  there  are  who  carry  this  so 
far  that  all  evil  is  under  their  censure,  and  they  leave  nothing 
unmeddled  with  and  unrebuked. 

Such  a  disposition  to  run  needlessly  into  the  province  of  the 
law,  to  prop  it  up,  will  soon  be  followed  by  something  else  which 
St  James  adds :  He  speaketh  evil  of  the  law,  and  judgeth  the 
laic.  This  can  have  but  one,  and  that  an  evil  meaning.  He 
who  judgeth  his  brother,  judgeth  often  unrightly  and  unad- 
visedly, so  that  he  condemns  him.  He  mostly  mistakes  and  deals 
wrongly  with  his  brother's  actions,  because  he  cannot  see  into 
his  heart ;  and  does  him  the  more  injustice,  the  more  diligently 
lie  seeks  out  his  brother's  WTong.  He  who  condemns,  intrudes 
into  the  judicial  office  of  the  law,  takes  its  place ;  and  this  means, 
first,  that  he  judges  in  the  name  of  the  law.  But  St  James 
speaks  here  of  his  judging  or  condemning  the  law  itself.  If 
thou,  that  is,  falsely  judgest  thy  brother —  as  evil-speakers  are 
very  likely  to  do — if  thou  condemnest  him  where  the  rightly- 
applied  law  would  absolve  him — thou  then  knowest  better  what 
sin  is  than  the  law  knows !     And  is  not  that  to  exalt  thyself 


422  EVIL  SPEAKING  AND  JUDGING. 

above  the  law,  and  to  mend  it  as  not  keen  and  exact  enough  ? 
Finallv,  and  this  is  Avorst  of  all — Thou  ^vilt,  in  this  meddling 
with  the  sin  of  others,  forget  thyself,  and  neglect  thine  own 
obedience.  Thou  art  not  set  to  be  a  judge,  but  shouldst  before 
all  things  be  thyself  a  doer,  of  the  law. 

But  if  thou  judgest  the  law,  thou  art  not  a  doer  of  the  law, 
hut  a  judge  !  That  means,  assuredly,  first :  Thou  trespassest  by 
thine  evil  speaking  and  judging  the  law,  which  forbids  such  con- 
duct ;  and,  according  to  St  James'  earlier  doctrine,  thou  hast 
become  by  this  violation  of  one  commandment  guilty  of  the 
whole  law ;  thou  hast  by  no  means  fulfilled  the  royal  law.  Love 
thy  neighbom-  as  thyself !  Thou  hast  not  done  well !  (ch.  ii. 
8,  10).  The  law  of  love  requires  that  thou  shouldst  spare  and 
bear  with  thy  brother,  and  rather  hide  than  drag  out  his  sin ; 
but  thou  by  thy  conduct  declarest  that  law  to  be  too  mild,  thou 
condemnest  and  breakest  it  in  one  and  the  same  act.  So  that 
where  the  one  is  found,  a  judge  of  the  law,  the  other  will  cer- 
tainly follow  from  it,  aiid  not  a  doer  !  The  more  we  look  after 
others,  the  less  time  and  inclination  have  we  to  think  of  our 
owu  acts ;  the  more  diligently  we  examine  the  accounts  of  othei*s, 
to  detect  and  expose  the  errors  of  others,  the  less  earnestly  shall 
we  investigate  om'  own  accounts ;  the  more  we  seek  to  express 
our  knowledge  of  good  and  evil  in  word  and  censure,  the  less 
vigour  will  that  knowledge  have  in  the  sanctification  of  our 
own  heart  and  life.  This,  alas,  is  the  evil  effect  of  pride  and 
self-deception  in  every  natural  man  before  conversion,  to  see 
and  seek  for  sin  only  without  and  in  others ;  this  the  Holy  Ghost 
will  thoroughly  do  away  in  all  who  are  His ;  but  this  is  slowly 
accomplished,  and' the  progress  of  many  pious  people  is  checked 
by  their  inveterate  habit  of  judging  others.  When  it  becomes 
the  confirmed  practice  of  such  Christians  to  make  their  infallible 
adjudications  as  to  who  are  and  who  are  not  converted,  who 
are  awakened  and  who  natural  men,  who  are  the  children  of 
the  world  and  who  the  children  of  God ;  when  they  undertake 
to  point  with  their  finger  to  this  and  that  man  who  is  dead  and 
blind,  and  still  among  the  lost — they  are  in  great  danger  of 
becoming  hypocrites  instead  of  saints.  Avoid  this,  brethren,  as 
the  very  plague  of  godliness !  Set  not  yourselves  up  as  judges 
in  the  jilace  of  Christ ;  dare  not  to  anticipate  the  day  when  the 
Lord  will  come  to  separate  between  those  on  the  right  hand 


JAMES  IV.  11,  12.  423 

and  those  on  the  left !  Regard  all  as  brethren,  and  as  partakers 
of  grace,  against  whom  the  plainest  scriptural  marks  do  not 
testify ;  and  even  in  their  case,  do  not  reject  utterly  whom  the 
grace  of  God  may  yet  save ! 

There  is  one  Laicgiver  and  Judge,  who  can  save  and  can  con- 
demn. Lawgiver  and  Judge — so  runs  the  more  correct  reading 
of  the  text :  the  Lawgiver  is  alone  the  Judge ;  thou,  who  art 
brother  by  the  side  of  brother,  sinner  by  the  side  of  sinner, 
art  neither  the  one  nor  the  other !  God  will  of  necessity  judge, 
and  nothmg  shall  be  neglected  at  last ;  thou  art  mider  no  requii-e- 
ment  to  come  to  His  aid.  God  caii  save  and  condemn ;  He  alone 
has  the  right  and  the  power  for  that,  and  will  awfully  demonstrate 
it  to  the  condemned  in  due  season.  But  He  will,  as  thou  knowest 
and  shouldst  never  forget,  much  rather  save :  this  word  therefore 
comes  first !  He  delays  so  long  the  day  of  judgment ;  for  He 
hath  patience  with  us,  not  willing  that  any  should  perish,  but 
that  every  man  should  come  to  repentance  (2  Pet.  iii.  9).  How 
many  now  lost  will  He  yet  find ;  how  many  now  fallen  will  He 
yet  raise  up  by  the  might  of  His  grace — whom  thou,  loveless 
and  unforbearing,  dost  utterly  ^condemn !  Who  art  thou,  that 
judgest  another  man's  servant  ?  To  his  own  lord  he  standeth 
or  falleth.  But  he  may  be  raised  up  again,  for  God  is  able 
to  make  him  stand  (Rom.  xiv.  4).  Hast  thou  no  pleasure  in 
hoping  for  his  re-establishment,  wouldst  thou  rather  inform 
against  him  than  apologise  for  him — then  art  thou  in  that  like 
the  devil  himself,  whose  name  is  the  accuser  !  But  the  merci- 
ful God  hath  cast  out  this  accuser,  with  all  his  vehement  right  in 
our  sin;  else  wert  thou  indeed  condemned  for  ever,  and  not 
saved.  The  Lawgiver  will  judge  in  the  sacred  right  of  mercy, 
according  to  the  free  law  of  love :  remember  that  for  thyself 
and  for  others,  that  mercy  may  rejoice  in  thee  against  judg- 
ment! 

Who  art  thou,  who  judgest  another?  So  speaks  St  James 
like  St  Paul.  Art  thou,  shortsighted  man,  become  omniscient 
before  the  time,  before  the  Lord  cometh  to  bring  to  light  the 
hidden  things  of  darkness,  to  reveal  the  secret  counsels  of  all 
hearts,  and  to  give  to  every  man  his  own  praise  or  blame  ?  (1  Cor. 
iv.  5).  Canst  thou  "  trace  home  virtues  and  sins  to  their  most 
secret  source  f  In  the  place  of  Scripture  where  we  find  the 
woes  denounced  against  those  who  call  evil  good,  and  good  evil. 


424  EVIL  SPEAKING  AND  JUDGING. 

there  follows  yet  another  woe — Woe  unto  them  that  are  wise  in 
their  own  eyes,  and  prudent  in  their  own  sight !  (Is.  v.  21). 
Human  judgment,  as  human,  is  shortsighted,  \nadequate ;  it  is 
not  valid  before  God,  and  therefore  thou  mayest  spare  thy  need- 
less pains.  We  sing  of  the  day  of  judgment,  that  "  then  all 
the  false  imaginings  of  the  world  give  place  to  changeless 
truth" — but  we  may  say  that  all  the  yet  falser  imaginings  of 
the  children  of  God,  in  their  judgment  of  the  so-called  world, 
will  give  place  to  truth !  "  No  false  witness  avails  here " — 
O  how  many  accusations  and  testimonies  will  go  for  nothing 
then  !  Well  said  one  :  At  three  things  I  shall  wonder  in  heaven. 
First,  that  1  shall  not  find  many  there  of  whom  I  was  certain ; 
then,  that  1  shall  find  many  there  of  whom  I  was  sure  that  they 
would  not ;  but  lastly,  and  most  wonderful  of  all,  that  I  am 
actually  there  myself. 

And  this  is  well.  Be  not  too  secure  of  tliine  oum.  salvation, 
while  thou  art  disposed  to  judge  others !  Who  art  thou,  that 
actest  thus  ?  A  sinful  man  ;  not  yet,  alas,  as  thy  very  judging 
proves,  perfect  in  humility  and  love,  but  disposed  to  err  from  thy 
right  way ;  disposed  to  meddle  with  others,  before  thine  own 
affairs  are  thoroughly  settled.  WJw  art  thou  f  In  what  art 
thou  not  yet  a  perfect  doer  of  the  law  ?  Thou  hast  enough  to 
do  to  judge  thyself,  to  receive  thy  judgment  of  grace  from  the 
true  Lawgiver  and  Judge :  judge  no  man  before  the  time,  before 
the  Lord  hath  come  to  thee,  and  held  His  judgment  on  thyself ! 
Say  with  the  Apostle  in  another  sense — I  judge,  that  is,  I 
justify,  myself  not ;  he  that  judgeth  me  is  the  Lord,  I  (1  Cor.  iv. 
3,  4).  Always  to  remember  this,  is  a  sure  antidote  to  all  evil 
speaking  and  judging.  Thus  does  a  man  humble  himself  before 
the  Lord,  and  the  humble  Pie  will  exalt. 


JAMES  IV.  13-17.  425 

,   XXV. 

THE  UNCERTAINTY  OF  OUR  SHORT  LIFE. 

(Ch.  iv.  13-17.) 

Go  to  now,  ye  that  say,  To-day,  or  to-morrow,  we  will  go  into  sucli  a  city, 
and  continue  there  a  year,  and  buy  and  sell,  and  get  gain :  Whereas  ye 
know  not  what  shall  be  on  the  morrow.  For  what  is  your  life  ?  It  is 
even  a  vapour,  that  appeareth  for  a  little  time,  and  then  vanisheth  away. 
For  that  ye  ought  to  say.  If  the  Lord  will,  we  shall  live,  and  do  this,  or 
that.  But  now  ye  rejoice  in  your  boastings ;  aU  such  rejoicing  is  evil. 
Therefore  to  him  that  knoweth  to  do  good,  and  doeth  it  not,  to  him  it 
is  sin. 

Here  is,  again,  something  that  proceeds  from  the  vain  thoughts 
and  untamed  lusts  of  the  proud  heart,  and  which  St  James  has 
to  rebuke  in  the  brethren :  for  in  this  short  Epistle  he  warns 
and  admonishes  them  on  all  sides.  He  has  just  condemned  the 
confidence  with  which  many  assume  to  be  judges  of  others,  and 
find  time  to  talk  about  others'  sins,  while  they  forget  the  judg- 
ment which  is  impending  over  themselves.  Very  naturally,  he 
now  passes  over  to  the  condemnation  of  that  false  security  gene- 
rally, in  which  men  think  not  of  death  always  near,  and  the 
judgment  which  follows  it,  but  form  plans  and  projects  for 
which  they  think  that  they  must  needs  have  time  sufficient. 
He  once  more  rebukes  their  pride,  and  confronts  it  with  the 
mighty  hand  of  God,  which  ruleth  all  things  according  to  His  will. 
He  exhorts  us  all  earnestly  to  the  diligent  performance  of  every 
good  work  assigned  to  us,  and  thus  carries  back  his  subject  to  the 
previous  requirement  of  good  works  generally.  He  reminds  us, 
in  the  conclusion  of  this  chapter,  of  the  uncertainty  of  our  short 
life  between  every  to-day  and  to-raon'ow,  which  we  all  know  so 
well,  and  so  easily  forget ;  and  then  selects  from  the  many  ad- 
monitions which  follow  from  it,  one  thing  only  for  his  present 
pm'pose,  as  suiting  his  Epistle,  and  touching  the  main  point 
with  sufficient  force. 

How  many  years  of  life  past  every  man  reckons,  he  knows ; 
but  how  many  years,  or  only  days,  will  yet  be  allotted  to  him, 


426  THE  UNCERTAINTY  OF  OUR  SHORT  LIFE. 

lie  knows  not.  And  his  not  knowing  it  is  so  sure  and  so  solemn 
a  tiling,  that  he  ought,  as  a  reasonable  man,  and  certainly  as  a 
called  and  warned  Christian,  to  bear  it  in  mind  always  whgn 
circumstances  require  him  to  think  or  speak  anything  about  his 
future  life.  And,  nevertheless,  how  common  among  us  is  the 
foolish  language  of  the  secure  heart,  which  St  James  now  be- 
gins to  rebuke !  Go  to  now,  ye  that  say — To-day  or  to-morrow 
ive  icill  go  into  this  or  that  city,  and  will  stay  there  a  year  !  O 
how  daringly  we  plunge  into  the  future,  as  if  the  years  were  at 
our  own  disposal !  "  Art  thou,  bold  mortal,  lord  of  the  very 
next  moment?"  But  those  who  thus  speak  are  not  sure  merely 
of  to-day  and  to-morroiv ;  they  even,  as  their  language  betrays, 
reckon  on  many  uncounted  years,  of  which  they  at  first  speak 
of  only  one,  to  determine  how  that  shall  be  silent.  Thus  reckons, 
as  we  constantly  see  and  hear,  foolish  youth,  making  free  with 
the  expanding  future  of  long  life ;  so  it  is  with  men  in  the 
middle  of  life ;  and  old  age  is  no  defence  against  this  folly. 
How  many  a  man,  the  number  of  whose  vanished  years  should 
eifectually  warn  him,  reckons  after  the  old  fashion,  and  has 
always  at  least  one  year  in  the  futm'e  to  talk  of  and  scheme  fori 
O  the  blindness,  which  never  learns  the  lesson  taught  from 
birthday  to  deathday,  which  never  takes  a  warning  for  self  from 
the  multitudes  who  drop  off  to  the  right  and  to  the  left !  How 
swiftly  hastens  away  our  uncertain  life !  St  James  says  only 
what  the  Jews  and  Gentiles  alike  had  alway  said,  when  he 
cries  to  presumptuous  mortals — What  is  your  life'^  It  is  even 
a  vapour,  which  ajyyeareth  for  a  little  time,  and  then  vanisheth 
away  !  A  mist  and  vapour,  a  fleeting  cloud  which  passes  under 
the  broad  heavens  to  nothing!  A  little  time  it  is  to  be  seen, 
before  it  has  finished  its  rapid  course.  Does  not  the  past 
appear  to  us  all  as  if  condensed  into  one  single  Whence  ?  and 
Gone  f  Why  do  we  delude  ourselves  to  imagine  that  the  future, 
which  unalterably  becomes  the  past  with  every  moment,  will  be 
longer?  Think  of  that  always-hastening  moment,  when  it  will 
be  finally  said — All  is  gone  for  ever ;  no  one  year,  no  one  day, 
no  one  hour  more !  Direct  your  thoughts  to  the  eternal  God 
above,  that  He  may  give  you  His  grace  to  regard  all  time,  and 
the  little  drop  of  your  own  life  in  the  stream  of  ages,  as  it  will 
be  looked  back  upon  from  eternity !  Every  moment  souls  go 
hence  most  certainly,  and  which  moment  will  be  yours  ? 


JAMES  IV.  13-17.  427 

To-day  and  to-morrow  will  ye  go  there  or  there  ?  iclio  hiovo 
not  loliat  ivill  be  on  the  morroic,  tchat  a  day  may  bring  forth  ! 
Boast  not  thyself  of  to-mon*ow  —  warns  Solomon — for  thou 
knowest  not  what  this  day  may  bring  with  it !  (Prov.  xxvii.  1). 
Literally  :  What  a  day  may  give  birth  to ;  it  may  have  some-, 
thing  in  its  womi>  very  different  from  what  thou  hast  in  thy 
thoughts.  O  for  the  idle  plans,  projects,  hopes,  reckonings  of 
vain  men  !  But  whence  do  they  come  ?  From  the  same  lusts 
and  desires  concerning  which  St  James  said  at  the  beginning  of 
the  chapter  : — the  looking  eagerly  for  this  or  that  infatuates  the 
heart  in  a  foolish  pursuit  of  it.  And  what  is  it,  after  all,  but  a 
trifle  of  miserable  earthly  good,  which  these  wise  ones  pursue 
year  after  year  through  Hfe,  instead  of  aiming  at  the  prize  of 
the  high- vocation?  We  Avill  buy  and  sell,  and  get  gain:  thus 
they  said  in  St  James'  time,  and  this  word  stands  for  many 
others.  So  they  say  now  in  the  busy,  scheming.  Christian 
world.  Our  text  is  the  sermon  which  our  times  of  "  material 
interests"  so  much  need — when  sacred  industry,  one  might  say, 
has  become  the  only  religion  of  many  Christian  men,  the  one 
moving  power  wliich  sets  all  their  souls  in  action ;  an  adch'ess 
to  men  of  commerce  especially,  the  loss  and  gain  registered  in 
whose  books  should  remind  them  of  that  infinitely  more  import- 
ant gain  and  loss,  of  that  very  different  reckoning  which  awaits 
them.  O  take  care  that  every  day  a  good  balance  may  be  to 
your  account !  Woe  to  those  who  fall  into  bankruptcy  here  ! 
How  much  soever  of  Mammon  you  may  have  won,  will  it  make 
you  happy  or  save  you  ? 

They  will  not  all,  however,  get  gain.  There  are  those  who 
say  merely — We  will  enjoy  life ;  we  will  abide  there,  whither  we 
go,  or  where  we  now  are  ;  we  will  spend  the  time  as  best  we  may 
for  our  pleasure,  but  without  the  toil  and  trouble  of  doing  good. 
But  the  Lord  may  call  you  at  any  moment  from  the  place  which 
you  so  securely  and  idly  occupy  ;  He  can  ver^^  soon  overturn  the 
house  in  which  you  fix  your  rest,  or  even  the  whole  city,  where 
many  like  you  do  the  same.  And  when  you  say.  We  will  do  this 
or  that — your  language  is  perverse  and  most  peril/aus  as  long  as 
you  mean,  ive  will,  and  nothing  more,  as  if  all  depended  simply 
upon  that.  Will  you  really  accomplish  this  or  that,  in  this  or 
that  manner  effect  your  schemes  1  as  if  you  were  like  God,  as 
if  all  were  possible  to  you,  provided  only  you  wisely  plan  and 


428  THE  UXCERTAINTY  OF  OUR  SHORT  LIFE. 

perseveringly  hold  to  your  purpose  !  But  between  to-day  and 
to-morrow  that  may  apply  to  you  which  we  find  in  the  psalm — 
His  breath  goeth  forth,  he  returneth  to  his  earth  ;  in  that  veiy 
day  his  thoughts  perish  (Ps.  cxlvi.  4). 

This  is  the  essential  insecurity  of  our  transitory  life — of 
Avhich  Ave  are  all  so  fully  conscious,  but  whicl*  we  so  easily  and 
sometimes  so  entirely  forget.  What  then  is  the  exhortation  which 
this  requires  f  There  are  many  who  deduce  from  it  the  most 
foolish  consequences ; — who  do  not  indeed  reckon  upon  years 
in  the  formation  of  their  projects,  on  the  contrary,  they  are  con- 
stantly speaking  of  the  vanity  of  human  life  ; — who  make  it  a 
reason,  not  for  thinking  of  eternity,  but  for  enjoying  to  the 
utmost  the  present  day  and  hour,  thinking  that  all  things  end 
with  death.  Such  foolish  people  were  pointed  out  in  the  Book 
of  Wisdom  :  "  Our  life  shall  pass  away  as  the  trace  of  a  cloud, 
and  shall  be  dispersed  as  a  mist,  overcome  with  the  heat  of  the 
sun.  For  our  time  is  a  very  shadow  that  passeth  away ;  and 
after  om'  end  there  is  no  returning.  Come  on,  therefore,  let  us 
enjoy  the  good  things  that  are  i^resent ;  and  let  lis  earnestly  use 
the  creatiu-es,  while  we  are  young"  (Wisd.  of  Sol.  ii.  4-6).  But 
St  James  uses  scriptural  language,  concerning  life  being  a 
vapour,  without  fearing  that  his  language  might  be  that  way 
perverted.  Preaching  to  those  who  now  come  to  God's  house, 
we  also  have  not  that  to  fear :  all  know  full  well  that  another 
life  of  reckoning  awaits,  when  this  short  life  is  past.  But  what 
follows  from  the  solemn  fact  that  any  day  we  may  die  ?  Not, 
Christians,  that  Ave  must  hang  in  continual  anxiety  and  doubt, 
losing  in  the  fear  of  death  all  vigour  of  action,  all  courage  and 
consolation,  and  waiting  in  suspense  for  the  threatened  doom. 
Be  that  far  from  us  !  He  that  is  our  God  is  the  God  of  salva- 
tion ;  and  unto  God  the  Lord  belong  the  issues  from  death 
(Ps.  Ixviii.  20).  The  wise  woman  of  Tekoa,  whom  Joab  sent 
to  intercede  with  David  for  Absalom,  was  cunning  enough  to 
say — For  we  must  needs  die,  and  be  as  water  spilt  upon  the 
ground,  which  cannot  be  gathered  up  again  ;  because  God  hath 
not  taken  away  his  life,  but  doth  devise  means  that  His  banished 
be  not  expelled  from  Him  (2  Sam.  xiv.  14).  We  have  a  Saviour, 
who  hath  died  in  oiu'  stead,  and  obtained  life  for  us  !  But 
have  we  Him  really  ?  You  who  are  not  yet  sure  of  this,  Avho 
have  not  yet  begiui  to  press  towards  the  mark  of  the  prize  of 


JAMES  IV.  13-17.  429 

the  higli  calling  in  Christ  Jesus,  and  iJierefore  care  about  nothing 
but  buying  and  selling  and  getting  gain — can  receive  but  one 
counsel,  and  that  is.  To-day  rather  than  to-morrow  to  seek  in  true 
repentance  salvation  from  the  mercy  of  God  in  Christ.  But 
we  who  know  Him,  and  belong  to  Him  in  our  hearts,  though 
we  may  have  been  seduced  into  that  foolish  security  which  St 
James  here  condemns  in  Christians — may  hear  what  now  fol- 
lows for  us  and  the  direction  of  our  better  thoughts.  It  is  no 
other  than  the  exhortation  to  place  our  willing  absolutely  from 
this  time  under  the  ivill  of'  God ;  and  that  not  merely  in  the  doing 
of  ichat  ice  loill,  that  is,  in  the  execution  of  our  permitted  plans 
and  undertakings,  but  pre-eminently  in  diligent  doing  good  accord- 
ing to  the  will  of  God. 

It  is  not  St  James'  purpose  to  condemn  the  Christian's  say- 
ing, under  any  circumstances,  "  To-day,  or  to-morrow,  during 
this  year,  I  will  do  this  or  that."  For,  we  have  all  to  ponder 
beforehand  Avhat  it  is  our  duty  to  do  ;  he  who  should  altogether 
refuse  to  do  so  would  do  no  good  thing  generally,  though  that  is 
matter  of  exhortation  in  the  following  verses.  The  good  which 
is  given  us  to  do  is  not  always  the  mere  work  of  a  day ;  it  must 
often  be  the  well-considered  and  continuous  labour  of  patience, 
carrying  out  careful  plans  through  many  years.  Moreover,  as 
it  regards  the  business  and  sustentation  of  our  earthly  life,  we 
are  commanded  by  God  Himself  to  give  all  pnidential  diligence. 
But  what  the  Apostle  demands  is,  that  all  our  plans  be  subor- 
dinated to  the  will  of  the  Lord,  who  ruleth  all  things  above  ;  and 
that  we  say,  "  This  will  we  do"  indeed,  but  only  "  if  the  Lord 
will."  So  St  Paul  to  the  Ephesians  :  "  I  must  by  all  means 
keep  this  feast  that  cometh  in  Jerusalem  ;  but  I  will  return 
again  unto  you,  if  God  wilV  (Acts  xviii.  21).  And  again  to 
the  Corinthians  :  "  But  I  will  come  to  you  shortly,  if  the  Lord 
wiir^  (1  Cor.  iv.  19).  We  need  not  anxiously  and  literally  add 
this  word  on  all  occasions,  to  avoid  sin,  Avhen  we  utter  any  reso- 
lution. At  another  time,  we  read  that  St  Paul  determined  in 
spirit  to  journey  through  Macedonia  and  Achaia,  and  thence  to 
go  to  Jerusalem,  and  he  said — Afterwards,  I  must  see  Rome 
also !  (Acts  xix.  21).  He  does  not  there  add — If  the  Lord 
will.  It  is  the  over-anxious  addition  of  this  proviso  which  has 
given  rise  to  the  empty,  thankless  forms  of  speech  which  have 
become  so  common,such  as  "  God  save  you!"  and  "  ThankGod!" 


430  THE  UNCEKTAINTY  OF  OUR  SHORT  LIFE. 

We  loill,  but  only  if  the  Lord  icill :  that  should  be  self-under- 
stood in  our  hearts  ;  as  it  is  self-understood  with  God  that  His 
will  is  supreme  over  all.  And  if  this  is  the  real  earnestness  of 
our  souls,  much  will  follow  from  it !  Then  we  shall  not  only 
resign  to  the  disposal  of  the  government  of  God  what  should 
happen  to  us,  whether  the  success  or  f  aihu'e  of  oiu:  plans,  whe- 
ther we  should  go  here  or  there  ;  but  the  condition  will  be  never 
forgotten — If  the  Lord  will,  and  loe  live.  My  times  are  in  Thy 
hand  (Ps.  xxxi.  16)  ;  the  end  of  my  earthly  com'se  at  any  mo- 
ment Thou  mayest  assign.  Our  calendar  gives  us  the  longest 
and  shortest  days,  the  feast-days  and  festivals  ;  but  the  last  day 
of  the  world,  which  cannot  be  calculated  like  an  eclipse,  will 
never  be  there  ;  and  thy  last  day,  O  man,  is  not  there  marked 
out.  Therefore,  when  thou  lookest  into  the  calendar  of  thy 
existence,  forget  not  to  look  backwards  to  the  old  sins  registered 
against  thee,  that  none  of  them  may  remain  vmblotted  out. 
And  when  thou  reckonest  forward,  be  sure  thou  form  good  plans 
for  the  right  use  of  thy  time  of  grace.  It  is  short  and  fleeting  ; 
but  long  enough  to  seek  and  find  salvation.  He  who  redeems 
it,  will  have  no  lack ;  but  the  dreamers  and  sleepers  will  find 
the  one  day  they  calculated  on  too  short.  Time  enough  one 
day  before  death — said  a  Jewish  sage  when  asked  about  this 
matter.  But  when  it  was  further  demanded — How  may  I  know 
the  day  ?  he  replied — Therefore  begin  to-day  !  Well  for  him 
who  can  in  humility  reckon  upon  and  glory  in  the  grace  of  God 
for  preparation  ! 

But  to  the  rest  saith  St  James,  But  noio  ye  rejoice  in  your 
boastings  :  all  such  rejoicing  is  evil.  Is  it  not  the  highest  pride, 
when  regarding  our  actions,  to  think  that  we  by  our  own  will 
accomplished  anything,  whether  the  Lord  would  or  not  ?  As 
the  Prophet  rebukes  the  proud  in  Zion,  and  those  who  were 
secure  in  the  mountain  of  Samaria — Ye  rejoice  in  a  thing  of 
nought,  which  say.  Have  we  not  taken  to  us  horns  by  our  own 
strength'?  (Amos  vi.  1,  13).  Instead  of  that,  we  should  always 
and  everywhere  say — Blessed  be  God,  who  hath  borne  with  me, 
spared  me,  kept  me,  and  strengthened  me,  so  that  hitherto  the 
Lord  hath  helped  me  !  Similar  pride  is  it,  when  we  think  only 
of  our  own  will  in  the  prospect  and  provision  of  om*  plans ;  in- 
stead of  saying,  if  we  can  with  good  conscience — May  God 
give  His  blessing,  and  help  me  still,  as  it  pleaseth  Him.   He  that 


JAMES  IV.  13-17.  431 

(jlorieth,  let  him  glory  in  the  Lord  !  (1  Cor.  i.  31).  All  gloiy- 
incr  Avliich  foro-ets  that  is  evil :  in  itself  it  is  sin,  comes  from  the 
sin  of  the  heart,  and  worketh  nothing  but  vain  boasting,  forget- 
fulness  of  God,  and  sin.  Yea,  all  supposed  good  which  man 
may  effect  with  zeal,  if  it  proceed  from  this  glorying  and  this 
security,  is  not  good  before  God. 

Unprofitable  servants  are  we  all  before  God;  that  is  certain, 
for  all  our  ability  comes  directly  from  Him.  But,  because  He 
makes  us  able,  therefore  we  are.  under  obligation  to  do  all  that 
is  commanded  us.  Diligently  to  do  good,  as  ice  hioiv  Jioiv,  accord- 
ing to  the  will  of  God,  is  the  concluding  exhortation  of  St  James, 
as  better  than  such  self-willed  purpose  to  do  this  or  that.  If  we  are 
found  diligently  aiming  in  good  works  at  the  possession  of  eternal 
life,  then  verily  our  fleeting  earthly  life  becomes  more  than  a 
mere  vapour  which  vanisheth  away ;  then  it  becomes  the  seed- 
time of  the  great  harvest  of  everlasting  gain.  Let  us  do  good,  and 
not  be  weary ;  for  in  due  season  we  shall  reap  without  ceasing ! 
(Gal.  vi.  9).  This  is  our  best  buying  and  selling,  and  getting  gain ; 
and  touching  this  we  sliould  every  day  say.  We  will,  Lord  help  us  ! 
"  Occupy  till  I  come,"  saith  the  Lord,  who  giveth  the  pounds, 
to  His  servants  (Luke  xix.  13).  To  this  end,  we  must  observe 
the  time  and  opportunity,  while  avc  have  it.  Every  day  when 
we  ask  for  it,  the  duty  of  the  day  which  lies  before  us  gives  its 
reply  from  God.  Then  should  we  say — This  or  that  /  ought 
to  do  to-day,  and  that  loill  I  do.  But  we  must  not  think  that  it 
is  enough,  as  many  say,  to  mark  each  day  with  a  good  work ; 
if  so,  the  Lord  would  every  day  indicate  to  us  specifically  this 
or  that  to  do.  He  has  in  His  word  declared  to  us  His  will,  His 
will  that  we  should  do  all  the  good  that  we  hiow  to  do  and 
can  do.  Again,  St  James  tells  us  by  the  Holy  Ghost — He  that 
hioweth  to  do  good,  and  doeth  it  not,  to  him  it  is  sin  !  All,  every- 
thing down  to  the  least,  is  included  in  that  great  word  of  the  Lord 
Himself  concerning  the  servant  who  knew  his  master's  will  and 
did  it  not  (Luke  xii.  47).  Every  one  of  us  has  the  task  of  his 
life,  and  has  for  every  day  the  task  to  do  all  the  good  that  it  is 
in  his  knowledge,  and  his  knowledge  in  his  position,  to  do.  Plow 
much  might  be  said  upon  this  word  of  St  James,  which  con- 
demns the  countless  sins  of  omission,  even  among  believers ; 
which  m'ges  us  alike  to  repentance  for  the  past,  and  a  holier 
zeal  for  the  time  to  come  !     But  we  will  now  confine  om'selves 


432  THE  UNCERTAINTY  OF  OUE  SHORT  LIFE. 

to  a  few  remarks  upon  an  obvious  misunderstanding  of  these 
words. 

What  is  the  good  which  we  must  do "?  First  of  all,  it  is  that 
one  thing,  from  which  every  other  good  may  spring,  the  great 
act  of  repentance  and  conversion,  of  believing  self-consecration 
to  God,  and  the  continuing  in  this  deed.  Take  care  of  the 
business  of  thy  salvation,  and  neglect  not  the  one  thing  which 
is  needful !  Of  that  never  say,  in  the  spirit  of  procrastination 
— To-day  or  to-morrow  ;  for  thou  knowest  not  what  shall  be  on 
the  morrow.  Not  of  that  say  even — After  a  year  or  so  there 
will  be  time  enough  for  it ;  first,  I  will  for  a  year  buy  and  sell, 
and  then  I  will  give  diligence  in  those  good  works  which  the 
Lord  expects  from  His  redeemed  people ! — But  be  wise  to  know 
aright,  how  and  in  what  a  man  truly  does  that  lohich  is  good  ! 
Thiis,  for  example  (I  give  one  instance  only  for  many),  it  is  not 
of  itself  doing  good  to  our  neighbour,  to  give  him  in  sympathy 
all  that  he  asks  :  we  should  sometimes  know  that  unwise  giving 
is  not  true  benevolence,  and  should  do  to  our  neighbour  what  is 
good  for  him,  though  it  be  by  refusing  the  alms  which  would  do 
him  harm.  Fm'ther,  when  we  are  bidden  to  let  our  moderation 
be  known  unto  all  men  (Phil.  iv.  5),  it  does  not  mean  a  love 
which  should  always  and  under  all  circumstances  show  itself 
externally  gracious.  If  God  resisteth  the  proud,  to  make  them 
humble  for  the  reception  of  His  grace,  and  the  best  thing  He 
can  do  is  thus  to  thwart  them,  it  may  be  your  duty  sometimes 
to  be  His  ministers  in  this  necessary  and  good  work.  If  you 
can,  without  pride  on  your  own  part,  resist  the  proud,  you  will  do 
him  good.  By  this  it  appears  that  a  sm'e  knowledge  belongs  to 
the  doing,  if  it  is  to  be  a  good  work ;  for  the  heart  of  a  wise 
man  discerneth  both  time  and  judgment  (Eccles.  viii.  5). 

Brethren  !  Does  not  every  one  of  us  know  to  do  much 
more  good  than  he  actually  does  ?  How  much  sin,  then,  how 
much  guilt  of  idleness  and  neglect  remains  with  us  all !  St 
James  had  before  presented  the  very  simple  truth,  and  how  do 
we  deal  with  it  ourselves?  Do  you  say — O  Lord,  I  knoio  that 
the  way  of  man  is  not  in  himself ;  it  is  not  in  man  that  walk- 
eth  to  direct  his  steps  (Jer.  x.  23)  %  then  direct  not  your  own  way 
according  to  your  own  will,  but  submit  yom'self  to  the  will  of 
the  Lord.  Do  you  say — I  knoxo  in  whom  I  have  believed 
(2  Tim.  i.  12)?  then  live  as  a  righteous  man  by  this  faith ;  for 


JAilES  V.  1-6.  433 

whatsoever  is  not  of  faith  is  sin  (Rom.  xiv.  23).  Do  we  know 
that  faith,  if  it  have  not  works,  is  dead  in  itself ;  and  do  we 
hioiv,  f  ui'ther,  that  we  are  by  nature  dead  in  trespasses  and  sins, 
that  all  our  ow?i  works  are  dead  works ;  then  let  us,  when  St 
James  ui-ges  us  to  do  good,  say  in  the  full  sense  of  his  meaning — 
If  the  Lord  will,  and  we  live,  if  He  giveth  us  the  life  which  this 
requu'es  !  But  the  Lord  will  make  us  ready  to  every  good  work, 
that  also  Ave  knoio  :  therefore  let  us  ask  and  receive,  hold  fast 
and  use  His  grace,  which  worketli  in  us  all  that  is  good. 


XXVI. 

THE  MISERY  COMING  UPON  THE  EICH. 

(Ch.  V.  1-6.) 

Go  to  now,  ye  rich  men,  weep  and  howl  for  your  miseries  that  shall  come 
upon  you.  Your  riches  are  corrupted,  and  yqur  garments  are  moth- 
eaten.  Your  gold  and  silver  is  cankered ;  and  the  rust  of  them  shall 
be  a  witness  against  you,  and  shall  eac  your  flesh  as  it  were  fire.  Ye 
have  heaped  treasure  together  in  the  last  days.  Behold,  the  hire  of  the 
labourers  who  have  reaped  down  your  fields,  which  is  of  you  kept  back 
by  fraud,  crieth :  and  the  cries  of  them  which  have  reaped  are  entered 
into  the  ears  of  the  Lord  of  Sabaoth.  Ye  have  lived  in  pleasure  on  the 
earth,  and  been  wanton :  ye  have  nourished  your  hearts  as  in  a  day  of 
slaughter.  Ye  have  condenmed  and  killed  the  just ;  and  he  hath  not 
resisted  you- 

Go  to  noiv  !  Thus  St  James  takes  up  again  the  sentiment 
begun  in  ch.  iv.  13,  which  has  not  yet  been  closed.  But  if  we 
look  carefully,  we  note  that  the  Spirit,  guiding  his  pen,  gives 
him  another  conclusion  than  that  which  he  had  intended.  For  he 
would,  when  he  began  with  the  first  Go  to,  condemn  the  proudly 
secm'e  Christians,  who  had  let  their  desires  loose  upon' selling 
and  getting  gain  ;  and  till  now  he  had  those  in  his  mind  who 
would  be  susceptible  of  a  better  feeling,  who  would  say,  if  God 
will  I  and  do  good  when  they  knew  to  do  it.  But  now  a  sudden 
spirit  of  prophecy  seizes  him ;  so  that  he  is  constrained  most 
significantly  to  include  those  gain-seeking  Christians  among 
those  unbelieving  rich  men  who  hasten  forward  the  judgment 
already  impending.   Tliis  much  is  clear  :  in  ch.  v.  1-6  he  speaks, 

2  E 


434  THE  MISERY  COMING  UPON  THE  RICH. 

for  the  first  and  only  time  in  liis  Epistle,  to  such  as  are  without 
the  Christian  community,  the  rich  and  high-minded  of  Jerusa- 
lem and  Israel,  who  cast  out  the  just,  and  who  continued  to  do 
to  the  disciples  of  Jesus  what  they  had  done  to  their  Master. 
The  rich  men  whom  he  must  mean  here  are  those  already  men- 
tioned in  ch.  ii.  6,  7  :  those  who  practised  violence  on  them,  the 
confessors  of  the  Lord  of  glory,  and  blaspheme  that  good  name 
by  which  they  were  called.  In  opposition  to  them  stood,  ver.  5, 
the  poor  of  this  w^orld  chosen  of  God,  those  who  were  rich  in 
faith  and  heirs  of  the  kingdom  which  He  has  promised  to  them 
that  love  Him.  Well  for  these  rich  poor,  to  whom  all  their 
trials  should  be  pure  joy,  Avho  in  all  their  lowliness  should  re- 
joice in  their  being  exalted !  But  woe  to  the  poor  rich,  who 
have  nothing  more  than  their  riches  !  To  them  St  James  pre- 
dicts, as  a  prophet,  and  in  the  style  of  the  old  prophets,  the  im- 
pending judgment  to  which  Jerusalem  was  doomed,  the  desola- 
tion of  the  land  and  all  the  misery  which  he,  like  the  Lord 
Himself,  speaks  of  as  His  coming  to  judgment  and  salvation. 
The  coming  of  the  Lord  draweth  nigh,  the  Judge  is  at  the  door ! 
(vers.  8,  9). 

As  St  James  is  not,  properly  speaking,  addressing  here  the 
readers  of  his  Epistle,  so  the  enforcement  of  this  particidar  ex- 
hortation is  not  expressly  for  the  Chiu'ch.  But  he  predicts,  in 
the  hearing  of  Christians,  the  judgment  of  the  unbelieving  with- 
out ;  just  as  the  ancient  prophets  were  wont  to  let  Israel  hear  the 
denunciations  which  God  uttered  upon  strange  peoples  : — partly 
to  encom'age  their  confidence  against  the  oppressing  power  of 
•heathenism,  and  partly  as  a  mirror  to  reflect  their  own  danger  of 
fajling  into  the  same  condemnation.  In  this  sense  let  us  hear 
and  consider  the  words  of  St  James,  touching  the  misery  ichich 
will  befall  the  poor  rich  men  who  shall  have  lived  without  faith 
in  the  one  Redeemer.  ' 

It  icill  come  upon  you,  will  suddenly  fall  upon  you  with 
manifold  sorrows!  So  St  James  says  at  first;  but  then  at  once 
prophetically  anticipates  that  future,  and  speaks  to  the  miserable 
men  concerning  their  riches  as  already  corrupted,  of  their  pride 
of  life  as  already  vanished  and  gone.  Ye  have  lived  in  pleasure, 
and  been  wanton  !  Yoiu'  treasures  were  nothing  but  low  and 
perishable  earthly  good ;  your  joy  was  nothing  but  transitoiy 
fleshly  lust,  which  turned  to  weeping  and  howling.    On  the  earth 


JAMES  V.  1-6.  435 

was  your  portion  and  inheritance,  your  fatherland ;  ye  would 
not  learn  in  faith  to  look  up  to  heaven,  and  seek  for  eternal 
good.  "  Look  now  toward  heaven,  and  tell  the  stars  :  So  shall 
thy  seed  be  !"  (Gen.  xv.  5).  That  was  the  word  which  the 
Lord  addressed  to  Abraham's  faith  ;  and  the  profound  presenti- 
ment of  his  soul  solicits  every  man  upon  earth  thus  to  look  up. 
Abraham  believed,  and  Abraham  more  and  more  clearly  under- 
stood, that  to  him  and  to  his  seed  God  pointed  out  a  better  and 
a  heavenly  home  : — the  same  glory  and  glorification  which  noio, 
in  the  fulness  of  the  time,  those  who  believe  in  Jesus  have 
brightly  before  their  eyes,  since  like  Stephen  they  have  looked 
up  through  the  opened  heavens  to  the  Son  of  Man.  But  those 
who  were  not  believers  in  this  heavenly  calling  retained  their 
earthly  mind,  and  lived  in  their  folly  like  those  who  should  for 
ever  abide  among  their  earthly  treasru'es  and  in  the  enjoyment 
of  their  earthly  lusts  !  Ye  have,  indeed,  lived  and  been  wanton 
—  that  St  James  admits  —  probably,  also,  have  sometimes 
afforded  others  pleasure  in  the  expenditm^e  of  your  abundance ; 
but  ye  sought  only  your  own  pleasure,  have  nourished  and  fat- 
tened your  own  hearts  !  Alas,  your  hearts, — which,  however, 
can  never  be  satisfied  with  husks  ;  ye  have  despatched  your 
immortal  spirits'  deep  need,  like  the  fool  who  said  to  his  soul — • 
"  Thou  hast  much  goods  laid  up  for  many  years ;  eat,  di'ink,  and 
be  merry!"  (Luke  xii,  19).  Ye  have  lived  all  your  days  as  on  a 
day  of  slaughter :  that  is,  first,  as  if  there  was  nothing  else  in 
life  but  killing  and  feasting,  like  Nabal  at  his  sheep-shearing, 
or,  like  those  of  whom  the  Prophet  speaks — "And,  behold,  joy 
and  gladness,  slaying  oxen  an4  killing  sheep,  eating  flesh  and 
di'inking  wine  !"  (Is.  xxii.  13).  Ajid  if  the  just  lifted  up  his 
earnest  testimony  against  this  wantonness,  or  if  only  his  ex- 
ample ashamed  and  condemned  you,  ye  followed  the  impulse  of 
your  wrath,  and  scorned,  rejected,  persecuted,  and  slew  him  I 
"  Therefore  let  us  lie  in  wait  for  the  righteous ;  because  he  is 
not  for  our  turn  ; — he  ilpbraideth  us  with  our  offending  the  law, 
and  objecteth  to  our  infamy  the  transgressions  of  our  educa- 
tion. He  professeth  to  have  the  knowledge  of  God ;  and  he 
calleth  himself  the  child  of  the  Lord.  He  was  made  to  reprove 
our  thoughts.  He  is  grievous  unto  us  even  to  behold; — let  us 
condemn  him  with  a  shameful  death ;  let  us  examine  him  with 
despitefulness  and  torture"  (Wisd.  ii.  12-20). 


436  THE  MISERY  COMING  UPON  THE  RICH. 

St  James  speaks,  as  there  in  the  Book  of  Wisdom,  concerning 
the  oppression  and  persecution  of  the  pious  generally :  Ye  have 
condemned  and  killed  the  just,  and  he  hath  not  resisted  you. 
Literally,  he  doth  not  resist  you — the  poor  just  man,  whom  ye 
still  persecute  always.  For  that  is  the  true  ordinance  of  God — 
The  righteous  resisteth  not  evil.  But  the  prophetic  Spirit  in 
St  James  utters  here  a  deep  and  pregnant  word.  As  even  that 
description  in  the  apocryphal  book  (which  should  be  read 
throughout)  becomes  a  prophecy  of  Christ,  so  St  James — while 
he  refers  to  all  oppressed  and  persecuted  just  men,  especially 
the  confessors  of  Jesus — means  pre-eminently  that  first  great 
wrong  which  the  proud  and  rich  in  Israel  did  to  the  Lord  of 
gloiy ;  for  He  alone  is  the  Just  in  the  fullest  sense.  So  speaks 
St  Peter — But  ye  denied  the  Holy  One  and  the  Just !  (Acts 
iii.  14).  Similarly  St  Stephen — Which  of  the  prophets  have 
not  your  fathers  persecuted  ?  and  they  have  slain  them  wdiich 
showed  before  (who  in  their  own  doom  foreshadowed  Him)  the 
coming  of  the  Just  One  :  of  whom  ye  have  been  now  the  be- 
trayers and  murderers  (Acts  vii.  52). 

We  know,  moreover,  that  our  Apostle,  the  writer  of  this 
Epistle,  obtained,  through  the  rigour  of  his  adherence  to  the 
statutes  of  the  Old  Testament — for  his  weak  brethren's  sake 
uniting  that  with  his  perfect  faith  in  Christ — the  honourable 
surname  of  "James  the  Just;''''  and  that  not  merely  among 
Christians,  but  among  the  better-minded  Jews  themselves.  But 
how  aifecting  is  the  absence  of  that  denomination  here !  He 
does  not  call  himself  by  that  name,  or  by  that  of  the  Lord's 
hrother,  which  he  was  after  the  flesh ;  but,  after  the  Spirit,  he 
terms  all  brethren  who  with  him  believe  in  the  Lord  of  glory. 
He  speaks  in  such  wise  that  we  may  take  it  as  we  will :  either 
all  Chrisitians  are  in  Christ  the  just ;  or,  Christ  alone,  whom  they 
condemned  and  put  to  death,  was  the  Just  One.  Nevertheless, 
again — so  wonderfully  prophetic  is  here  the  inspiration  of  the 
Holy  Ghost — he  is  constrained  unconsciously  to  prophesy  of 
his  own  person.  A  writer  who  lived  soon  after  the  Apostles, 
Hcgesippus,  relates  at  length  the  martyrdom  of  James  the  Just, 
the  brother  of  the  Lord,  shortly  before  the  siege  of  Jerusalem. 
The  Scribes  and  Pharisees  demanded  of  James,  at  the  time  of 
the  Passover,  that  he  should  bear  testimony  before  the  people 
agaivst  faith  in  Jesus;  they  placed  him  in  the  tower  of  the 


JAMES  V.  1-C.  437 

Temple,  and  said,  "  O  just  man,  whom  we  must  all  obey,  as  all 
the  people  are  erring  concerning  Jesus  the  Crucified,  tell  us  how 
this  is!"  But  their  knavish  flattery  did  not  blind  him;  he 
knew  well  what  they  meant,  and  testified,  though  like  Stephen 
in  vain,  concerning  Jesus,  that  He  was  in  heaven  seated  at  the 
right  hand  of  power,  and  would  come  again  in  the  clouds  of 
heaven.  Then  they  cried,  "  Woe,  even  the  just  man  hath  fallen 
into  error !"  They  threw  him  down  from  the  pinnacle ;  and, 
as  he  was  not  dead,  but  kneeled  and  interceded  for  them,  they 
stoned  him. — Thus  was  the  prophecy  of  his  Epistle  fulfilled  in 
himself :  They  condemned  and  killed  the  just,  and  he  resisted 
them  not.     Thus  did  he  bear  his  testimony  unto  the  death. 

And  so  before  him  did  the  Lord  Himself,  the  condemned 
Just  One,  declare  to  proud  Israel  and  its  mammon-worship- 
pers the  truth,  which  they  would  not  hear.  He  bore  constant 
testimony  against  their  covetousness,  and  set  before  them  the 
warning  example  of  that  rich  man  who  fared  sumptuously  upon 
earth.  In  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  which  St  James  ahvays 
has  in  view.  He  cried  after  the  Benedictions — "  Woe  unto  you,' 
rich,  for  ye  have  your  consolation !  Woe  unto  you  that  are 
full,  for  ye  shall  hunger !  Woe  unto  you  that  laugh  now,  for  ye 
shall  weep  and  lament!"  (Luke  vi,  24,  25).  And  so  was  it, 
even  in  time,  historically  fulfilled  when  the  misery  came  upon 
Judea  and  Jerusalem  which  St  James  beheld  as  near,  already 
at  hand. 

Ye  have  noiu'ished  your  hearts — fattened  them — as  in  a  day 
of  slaughter  1  This  is,  after  the  prophetical  manner,  a  keen  play 
upon  words —  Ye  yourselves  are  rather  the  prepared  victims  for 
the  great  slaughter  at  the  day  of  judgment.  Ye  have  wilfully 
remained  like  the  natural  brute  beasts  which  are  born  to  be 
taken  and  destroyed  (2  Pet.  ii.  12).  So  Jeremiah  spoke  of  the 
ungodly  sinners  being  "  pulled  out  like  sheep  for  the  slaughter, 
and  prepared  by  God  for  the  day  of  slaughter"  (Jer.  xii.  3).  So 
prophesied  Isaiah  concerning  proud  Edom,  "  The  Lord  hath  a 
sacrifice  in  Bozrah,  and  a  great  slaughter  in  the  land  of  Idumgea. 
And  the  unicorns  shall  come  down  with  them,  and  the  young 
bullocks  with  the  fattened  oxen  !"  (Is.  xxxiv.  6,  7).  So  in  the 
Apocalypse  the  angel  summons  all  the  fowls  that  fly  in  the 
midst  of  heaven  to  the  supper  of  the  great  God,  that  they  might 
eat  the  flesh  of  kings,  and  the  flesh  of  captains,  and  the  flesh 


438  THE  MISERY  COMING  UPON  THE  EICH. 

of  mighty  men,  and  the  flesh  of  horses,  and  of  them  that  sit  on 
them,  and  the  flesh  of  all  men,  both  free  and  bond,  both  small 
and  great  (Rev.  xix.  17,  18).  Fearful  is  the  severity  of  the 
righteous  wrath  ■which  speaks  of  such  judgments  in  the  midst 
of  the  Gospel  of  grace ;  fearful  the  actual  fact,  when  the  fattened 
flesh  of  the  scorners  shall  come  finall}'  to  the  slaughter ! 

Thus  it  is  said  concerning  these  poor  rich  men — Ye  have 
heaped  treasures  together  in  the  last  days,  the  brief  and  uncertain 
days  before  your  ruin.  ]\Iay  not  every  day  be  to  a  mortal  his 
last  day,  when  God  shall  demand  of  him  his  soul  ?  How  foolish 
is  all  heaping  and  gathering  together  of  earthly  treasures !  But  as 
then  the  rich  men  clung  to  their  accumulation,  in  those  proper 
last  days  which  preceded  the  destruction  already  threatening  by 
many  tokens,  so  avarice  blinds  men  in  all  ages ;  they  continue 
even  to  old  age,  and  in  the  face  of  death,  heaping  up  like  fools. 
And  so  in  those  last  days  which  will  precede  the  final  judg- 
ments upon  the  Christian  world  (concerning  which  the  Spirit 
in  St  James  here  prophesies),  the  heaping  up  of  riches  and  the 
wanton  life  of  the  infatuated  will  reach  their  highest  point. 
And  then  will  it  be  said — How  much  she  hath  glorified  herself, 
and  lived  deliciously,  so  much  torment  and  sorrow  give  her ! 
(Rev.  xviii.  7).  But  so  is  it  said  even  now  in  all  history;  so  is 
it  said  to  every  man  who  belongs  to  those  here  addressed,  in  his 
own  judgment  and  destruction,  when  it  comes  upon  him  in  his 
death. 

Yea,  ye  have  lived  in  pleasure  a  few  days  on  the  earth ;  but 
if  ye  must  then  go  forth,  and  be  as  the  beasts  which  perish 
(Ps.  xlix.  13,  21) — what  will  remain  for  you  then  ?  Ye  have, 
under  God's  longsuffering,  a  few  years  had  yom*  way  in  buying 
and  selling : — but  when  the  vapour  has  vanished,  what  loss,  what 
ruin  awaits  you !  Only  look  aright  at  your  riches — the  canker 
and  rust,  the  curse  of  unrighteousness,  is  already  upon  and 
within  them,  for  a  testimony  of  what  will  become  of  yourselves 
in  the  end  !  Your  riches  are  corrupted,  and  your  garments  are 
motheaten.  Your  gold  and  silver  is  cankered,  and  the  rust  of 
them  shall  be  a  witness  against  you,  and  eat  your  flesh  like  fire. 
O  had  they  but  heard,  when  the  Just  One  preached — "  Lay  not 
up  for  yourselves  treasm'cs  upon  earth,  where  moth  and  rust 
doth  corrupt,  but  lay  up  for  yourselves  treasures  in  heaven !" 
(Matt.  vi.  19,  20).     O  that  even  in  the  last  days,  before  the 


JAMES  V.  1-G.  439 

weeping  and  howling  came,  they  had  acted  on  the  ad\dce — "  Be 
afflicted,  and  mourn  and  weep :  let  your  laughter  be  turned  to 
mom-ning,  and  your  joy  to  heaviness  !"  (Jas.  iv.  9).  All  your 
riches  generally  will  then  be  corrupted,  for  all  earthly  good  is  of 
the  dust  and  tends  to  decay.  That  corruption  is  ah-eady  in 
them ;  from  without  as  by  the  moth,  from  within  as  the  rust. 
Moiheaten,  then,  all  the  gay  clothing  with  which  you  bedecked 
your  vain  flesh.  Canhered  your  gold  and  silver !  But  can  gold 
and  silver  rust  ?  asks  the  foolish  reader,  who  will  not  under- 
stand the  wise  figurative  expression.  Yes,  verily,  as  St  James 
means,  your  beautiful  and  pure  gold  and  silver  will  rust !  Look 
rightly  at  it,  this  mammon  of  unrighteousness,  and  you  will  see 
the  evil  rust  upon  it :  do  not  injustice,  selfishness,  misuse,  the 
guilt  of  sin,  attach  to  mammon  ?  This  is  its  rust,  which  in  due 
time  will  eat  it  as  to  all  who  have  kept  it  and  heaped  it  up  as 
mammon.  Let  it  not  rust  in  your  hands  or  chests,  but  make  of 
it  friends  for  your  reception  into  everlasting  habitations  (Luke 
xvi.  9).  Else  wilt  thou  hear  that  word  which  wicked  Simon 
heard — Thy  money  go  with  thee  to  destruction  !  (Acts  viii.  20). 
Yes,  verily,  with  thee — so  means  St  James  all  that  he  has  said 
about  corruption,  motheating,  and  canker :  Thou  thyself  must 
corrupt  as  the  food  of  worms ;  thyself,  thy  flesh  will  the  canker 
eat  like  a  fire.  Therefore,  the  perishableness  of  thy  treasures 
should  be  a  testimony  to  thee  that  thou  art  perishing  with  them ! 
For  the  world  passeth  away  with  its  lust  (1  John  ii.  17). 
"  Eveiy  work  rotteth  and  consumeth  away,  and  the  worker 
thereof  shall  go  with  it"  (Ecclus.  xiv.  9). 

O  what  a  fire  of  wrath,  what  a  corruption  of  death !  Had 
ye  but  well  considered,  ye  poor  miserable  men  who  get  riches, 
that  man  "  as  a  rotten  thing  consumeth,  as  a  garment  that  is 
motheaten !"  (Job.  xiii.  38).  And  have  you,  the  food  of  worms, 
despised  the  salvation  of  God,  and  cast  from  you  the  heavenly 
calling,  only  that  after  a  few  days  of  pleasure  upon  earth  you 
may  perish  in  your  sins  ?  O  that  you  had  heard  the  prophet's 
sermon — "  Lift  up  your  eyes  to  the  heavens,  and  look  upon  the 
earth  beneath :  for  the  heavens  shall  vanish  away  like  smoke, 
and  the  earth  shall  wax  old  like  a  garment,  and  they  that  dwell 
therein  shall  die  in  like  manner :  but  My  salvation  shall  be  for 
ever,  and  My  righteousness  shall  not  be  abolished!"  (Is.  li.  6). 

When  the  judgment  comesj  the  rust  will  break  out,  the  guilt 


440  THE  MISERY  COMING  UPOX  THE  TJCH. 

xoill  he  disclosed  and  avenged.  And  what  is  that  guilt  ?  Selfish- 
ness, hardness,  the  want  of  that  mercy  which  alone  rejoiceth 
against  judgment.  Although  what  St  James  goes  on  to  say  is 
not  literally  and  externally  true  of  all  the  ungodly  rich,  yet  the 
disposition  of  the  heart  is  in  all  the  same,  as  the  plainest  ex- 
amples, occurring  not  seldom,  show.  Ye  have  lived  in  pleasure 
and  been  wanton  ;  but  the  rich  harvest  of  your  fields,  the  great 
gains  of  your  buying  and  selling,  ye  did  not  learn  to  distribute 
to  the  poor ;  ye  have  rather  oppressed  the  poor,  whose  lot  it  was 
to  produce  your  wealth.  Behold,  the  hire  of  the  labourers,  Avho 
have  reaped  down  your  fields,  which  is  kept  back  by  fraud, 
crieth ;  and  the  cries  of  them  that  have  reaped  are  entered  into 
the  ears  of  the  Lord  of  Sabaoth.  Ye  have  regarded  the  poor 
labourer,  not  as  your  serving  brother,  equal  to  yourselves  before 
God,  but  as  only  an  instrument  of  your  avarice.  Ye  have 
muzzled  the  ox,  which  trode  out  your  corn.  And  therefore 
what  Job  said  of  such  oppressors  is  for  you — "  The  hungry  hear 
their  sheaves ;  within  their  walls  they  must  press  oil,  and  tread 
their  winepresses,  and  suffer  thirst"  (Job  xxiv.  10,  11,  in  the 
right  translation).  In  the  present  day  how  many  like  these  Avork 
in  our  factories ;  how  many  neglected  children,  crippled  into  ma- 
chines, labour  for  the  wealth  of  the  rich !  Are  the  rich  manu- 
facturers in  our  Christendom  always  the  first  to  take  the  lead 
in  organisations  for  the  good  of  the  working  classes  ?  Sure  it 
is,  that  St  James'  word  is  applicable  to  too  great  a  number,  and 
over  many  a  proud  palace  the  superscription  might  be  written — 
"  Woe  unto  him  that  buildeth  his  house  by  unrighteousness,  and 
his  chambers  by  wrong!  That  useth  his  neighbour's  service 
without  wages,  and  givetli  him  not  for  his  work :  That  saith,  I 
will  build  me  a  wide  house  and  large  chambers,  and  cutteth  him 
out  windows ;  and  it  is  ceiled  with  cedar  and  painted  with  ver- 
milion. Shalt  thou  reign  because  thou  closest  thyself  in  cedar  ? 
Did  not  thy  father  eat  and  drink,  and  do  judgment  and  justice, 
and  then  it  was  well  with  him?"  (Jer.  xxii.  13-15). 

The  conduct  of  the  despots  of  wealth,  who  w'ill  not  know 
God  and  the  Saviour  of  all,  towards  the  poor  labourers,  cries 
everywhere  in  our  ears  loudly  enough  :  how  should  it  not  come 
also  into  the  ears  of  the  Lord  of  Sabaoth  ?  of  Him,  who  in  the 
law  of  Moses  said: — Thou  shalt  not  oppress  the  hired  servant 
that  is  poor  and  needy . . .  lest  he  Ciy  against  thee  to  the  Lord, 


JAMES  V.  1-6.  441 

and  it  be  sin  unto  tliee  (Dent.  xxiv.  14,  15).  "VVhen  that  sin  is 
visited  liome  and  avenged,  the  word  will  find  another  awful 
meaning — Yc  have  heaped  up  treasures,  treasures  of  wrath,  and 
accumulated  the  debts  of  an  infinite  baula'uptcy. 

But  ye  brethren  who  are  not  directly  and  personally  affected 
by  this,  take  them  nevertheless  for  an  example  ;  let  these  words 
have  the  effect  upon  you  which  St  James  intended  them  to  have 
upon  his  believing  readers.  Ye  poor  and  oppressed,  take  com- 
fort in  yotu"  better  treasures  ;  nor  let  it  enter  your  minds  to  envy 
the  rich.  And,  ye  godly  rich,  learn  still  more  and  more  not  to 
trust  in  uncertain  riches,  but  in  the  living  God  ;  to  do  good,  and 
be  rich  in  good  works,  ready  to  distribute,  willing  to  communi- 
cate, and  thus  lay  up  for  yourselves  a  good  foundation  against 
the  time  to  come,  that  ye  may  lay  hold  upon  eternal  life  (1  Tim. 
vi.  17-19).  Have  we  thoroughly  learned,  as  rich  and  poor, 
these  great  lessons  ?  Are  we  giving  all  diligence,  with  undivided 
hearts,  in  this  the  seedtime  for  the  eternal  harvest  1  Do  we  all 
know  how  profoundly  true  it  is  that  riches  and  earthly  good  are 
not  merely  in  themselves  vain  things,  but  things  full  of  danger  ? 
Do  the  poor,  who  believe  in  Jesus,  keep  themselves  free  from 
all  undue  desire  to  be  rich  ?  Is  there  no  unhappy  canker  in  the 
gold  and  silver  of  those  who  are  rich  1  Do  we  live  and  act  on  the 
firm  persuasion  that  nothing  can  be  more  foolish  than  to  heap 
up  treasures  in  the  last  days  ;  and  nothing  more  wise  and  blessed 
than  to  make  all  our  possessions  serviceable  to  the  glory  of  God 
and  the  ffood  of  our  neiohbour  ?  Let  us,  who  bear  the  Lord's 
testimony  before  those  who  are  without,  take  care  never  to  be 
found  in  any  such  practice  of  buying  and  selling  as  would  reduce 
us  to  a  level  with  the  condemned,  instead  of  causing  them  to 
bethink  themselves  of  their  ways.  Let  us  for  ever  pray — 
Incline  mine  heart  to  Thy  precepts,  and  not  to  covetousness  ! 
(Ps.  cxix.  36). 


442  PATIENT  WAITING. 

XXVII. 

I 

PATIENT    AVAITING. 

(Cli.  V.  7-9.) 

Be  ye  patient  therefore,  brethren,  unto  the  coming  of  the  Lord.  Behold, 
the  husbandman  waiteth  for  the  precious  fruit  of  the  earth,  and  hath  long 
patience  for  it,  until  he  receive  the  early  and  the  latter  rain.  Be  ye  also 
patient ;  stablish  your  hearts  :  for  the  coming  of  the  Lord  draweth  nigh. 
Groan  not  one  against  another,  brethren,  lest  ye  be  condemned :  behold, 
the  Judge  standeth  before  the  door. 

What  is  your  life  ?  It  is  a  vapour  which  appeareth  for  a 
little  time,  and  then  afterwards  vanisheth  away.  And  this 
afterwards,  how  soon  will  that  be  present !  How  short  and 
transitory  is  our  life !  Nevertheless,  to  some  it  is  too  long ;  they 
would  wish  their  life  shorter,  to  get  rid  of  all  their  trials  and 
cares.  And  this  is  marvellous  enough.  But  it  shows  us  that 
tone  in  itself  is  nothing ;  it  becomes  short  or  long  according  to 
what  it  includes  and  results  in.  It  comes  from  the  hand  of  God, 
but  it  is  o'iven  into  our  hands.  How  dost  thou  reo;ard  the  time  of 
thy  life  1  Is  it  too  short  or  too  long  to  thee  ?  It  is  too  short  for 
thine  earthly  projects  and  plans,  so  that  thou  requirest  a  longer 
future  than  ever  will  come  ?  It  is  too  short  for  the  enjoyment  of 
thy  pleasure,  so  that  the  present  moment  hastens  away  before 
thou  hast  properly  enjoyed  it,  and  thou  wouldst  vainly  hold 
fast  and  increase  the  days  of  joy  ?  Then  will  thy  life  be  verily 
too  short  in  the  end.  Misery  will  suddenly  come  upon  thee,  and 
then — thou  hast  lived  in  pleasure  on  the  earth  !  The  fear  of 
the  Lord  prolongeth  even  the  few  days  :  but  the  many  years  of 
the  wicked  shall  be  fearfully  shortened.  The  hope  of  the  right- 
eous shall  be  gladness  ;  but  the  expectation  of  the  wicked  shall 
perish  (Prov.x.  27,  28). 

Ye  righteous,  only  wait  in  patience,  and  let  not  the  time  be 
long  to  you !  Ought  you  not  rather  to  thirds;  life  too  short  for 
the  attainment  of  eternal  salvation  ?  Ought  you  not  rather  to 
want  more  time  for  making  absolutely  sure  your  calling  and 
election  ?    Instead  of  this,  how  often  is  the  waiting  to  the  end 


JAMES  V.  7-9.  443 

too  long  to  the  pious,  because  they  are  wanting  in  that  true 
patience,  in  that  true  waiting  on  the  Lord,  which  is  the  object  of 
St  James'  present  exhortation  ! 

He  turns  once  more  from  the  severe  condemnation  of  the 
unbeHevers  to  the  proper  readers  of  his  Epistle,  to  the  beloved 
Lrethxn,  to  those  who  needed  consolation  among  the  Christians. 
And  now,  after  having  had  much  in  the  earlier  portion  to  re- 
buke, he  goes  on  to  the  end  in  a  strain  of  gracious  appeal.  He 
comforts  the  oppressed,  those  who  were  afflicted  by  the  proud 
rich  ;  he  comforts  them  by  the  same  argument  which  had  been 
a  threatening  to  the  others,  by  that  speedy  coming  of  the  Lord 
which  will  bring  judgment  to  the  self-confident  and  salvation  to 
those  who  wait  in  hope.  The  Judge  and  the  Deliverer  stands 
before  the  door :  to  His  own,  His  coming  brings  the  summer 
(Luke  xxi.  30) — the  harvest  of  the  precious  fruit  of  tlie  good 
seed.  Is  not  this,  generally,  still  true  of  us  all,  though  not  in  the 
particular  meaning  which  St  James  had  in  view  ?  Did  not  the 
Ploly  Spirit  give  him  a  word  of  exhortation  for  all  times  ?  Let 
us  then  observe  the  life  of  the  Christian  in  time  as  a  patient 
waiting  for  the  near  approach  of  th-e  Lord.  We  see  first  what 
that  is  in  itself;  and  then  what  here  follows  from  it. 

The  Christian  not  only  waits  patiently  for  the  precious  fruit 
at  the  end  of  his  probation,  but  receives  also  patiently  the  need- 
ful 7'ain  and  blessing  during  his  life ;  and  with  this  waiting,  the 
end  is  still  ever  near  at  hand.  Behold,  the  husbandman  waits 
for  the  precious  fruits  of  the  earth,  and  is  patient ;  for,  between 
seedtime  and  harvest  the  ordinance  of  God  in  nature  requires 
its  time,  and  the  husbandman  who  could  not  wait  that  time 
would  never  reap  and  probably  never  sow.  True,  it  is  only 
fruit  of  the  earth,  but  still  in  its  kind  it  is  precious  fruit.  In- 
deed, such  o^vners  of  land  as  those  who  were  previously  rebuked, 
whose  oppressed  labourers  reaped  the  harvests  of  their  hoarding 
avarice, — do  not  truly  enjoy,  they  do  not  understand  and  trea- 
sure up  the  precious  fruit  of  the  earth.  Their  eyes  have  not 
waited  for  it  as  a  gift  from  the  hand  of  God ;  they  have  per- 
verted and  misused  God's  gift  into  idolatry,  as  the  sins  of  men 
pervert  all  earthly  blessings  into  curses.  But  ive,  dear  brethren, 
should  rightly  understand  St  James  v/hen  he  speaks  to  us 
figuratively  of  a  quite  different  and  more  precious  seedtime  and 
harvest  for  heaven,  which  takes  place  upon  earth.     Every  year 


444  PATIENT  ^yAITING. 

the  pai'able  is  renewed,  to  wliich  the  Lord  often  pointed,  and 
■which  His  servant  here  brings  near  to  oiu*  view  in  the  little 
word  Behold  !  The  whole  age  of  the  world,  with  the  millennia 
of  mankind  upon  earth,  is  a  great  seedtime  for  the  last  harvest, 
in  which  the  earth  should  give  its  fruit  to  heaven,  after  having 
from  heaven  received  the  seed.  When  the  "harvest  comes,  Ave 
shall  understand  the  ways  of  God.  Many  things  appear  to  us 
now  dark  and  confused ;  let  us  only  wait  for  the  period  of  ripe- 
ness and  consummation  !  The  same  holds  good  of  every  man 
for  his  time  of  grace,  and  in  the  most  important  sense  of  every 
true  Christian  who  really  lives  for  eternity.  Our  days  and 
years  are  strictly  measured  out  in  the  Divine  appointments  of 
the  kingdom  of  heaven.  Our  Lord  Himself,  in  the  flesh, 
ivaited  thirty  years  before  He  began  His  work  as  the  Sower ; 
and  in  this  time  of  waiting,  what  was  the  secret  work  of  His 
own  growth  and  increase  up  to  His  Divine-human  maturity, 
before  which  He  might  not  work  !  But  then,  also,  what  glori- 
ous fruit  resulted  from  that  brief  seedtime  for  Himself  and  for 
the  whole  world  !  He  gave  Himself  up  as  the  blessed  scedcorn 
which  should  bring  forth  much  fruit ;  and  all  oru'  sowing  and 
reaping  since  has  been  only  fruit  of  His  sowing,  as  He  said 
to  His  disciples — Herein  is  the  saying  true,  One  soweth  and 
another  reapeth !  (John  iv.  37).  Again,  if  we  are  to  be  full 
partakers  of  His  grace  and  redemption,  is  not  new  time  required, 
labour  and  patience  between  the  sowing  and  the  harvest  ?  But 
here  also  the  fruit  is  more  precious  than  any  harvest  may  be  in 
this  world :  for  it  is  the  fruit  of  righteousness  sown  in  peace 
(Jas.  iii.  18),  it  is  our  own  salvation.  Is  not  this  Avorthy  of  a 
short  waiting  ?  Then  will  the  poor  be  rich,  when  they  receive 
the  inheritance ;  the  sorrowful  Avill  be  joyful ;  the  waiters  un- 
speakably rewarded.  Well  for  us  if  we  then  hear  it  said — Ye 
have  endured  upon  earth  ;  behold,  your  reward  is  great  in 
heaven ! 

Till  then,  the  seed  must  grow  and  ripen  under  the  Lord's 
patience  and  ours.  For,  the  kingdom  of  God  is  as  if  a  man 
should  cast  seed  into  the  ground ;  and  should  sleep  and  rise, 
night  and  day,  and  the  seed  should  spring  and  grow  up,  he 
knoweth  not  how.  For  the  earth  bringeth  forth  fruit  of  her- 
self ;  first  the  blade,  then  the  ear,  after  that  the  full  corn  in  the 
ear.     But  when  the  fruit  is  hrougld  forth,  he  putteth  immediately 


JAMES  V.  7-9.  445 

tlie  sickle  in,  because  the  harvest  is  come  (Mark  iv.  26-29). 
Plow  then  does  the  seed  grow,  that  he  knoweth  not  how ;  and 
who  is  he  that  knoweth  not,  who  has  only  to  loait  night  and 
day  ?  Properly  speaking,  the  Lord  refers  only  to  oiu'  labour 
upon  others,  Avhen  we  toil  as  labourers  under  the  great  Hus- 
bandman, as  under-sowers  in  the  service  of  the  great  Sower. 
But  it  has  also  its  apphcation  to  our  own  hearts,  the  secret  growth 
in  which  unto  full  perfection  is  in  part  concealed  from  our  own 
eyes ;  only  that  we  must  at  least  know  that  there  has  been  a 
sowing,  and  that  the  harvest  in  us  is  approaching.  The  Lord 
Himself  knows  concerning  the  seed,  and  every  particle  of  it,  its 
own  necessary  and  appointed  time  :  therefore  is  He  patient  till 
His  coming  for  the  harvest  of  the  world.  After  He  had  offered 
once  one  offering  for  sins,  He  sitteth  on  the  right  hand  of  God, 
and  waiteth, — not  only  till  His  enemies  be  made  His  footstool, 
but  also  till  all  His  people  are  born  to  Him  and  nourished  up, 
till  all  the  sanctified  are  perfected  through  His  offering  (Pleb. 
X.  12-14).  Brethren,  the  Lord  Himself  waiteth  patiently 
— and  will  ye  not  wait,  would  ye  know  better  than  He  the 
time  of  the  precious  fruit  ?  Let  us  once  more  look  carefully 
into  St  Jam.es'  similitude — Who  is  strictly  speaking  the  hus- 
bandman ?  He  does  indeed  mean  ourselves,  as  we  have  under- 
stood, but  he  also  more  secretly  indicates  the  great  Lord  of  the 
harvest.  In  this  sense  we  may  translate — The  Lord  in  heaven 
is  patient,  rmtil  it,  the  precious  fruit  of  the  earth,  receive  from 
His  own  hand  the  early  and  the  latter  rain.  He  gives  all  that 
is  necessary  for  its  prosperity ;  because,  without  it,  He  would 
not  find  the  fruit  precious,  as  He  would  have  it,  and  worthy  of 
His  appearing. 

Therefore,  let  us  also  be  patient  as  He  is,  and  gladly  receive 
from  His  hand  the  needfiil  rain  and  blessing  which  alone  brings 
the  fruit,  and  which  Avill  make  us  ourselves  the  ripe  fruit  in  its 
season.  Luther  has  strangely  erred  with  his  morninrj  and  even- 
ing rain.  God  promised  Israel — I  will  give  you  the  rain  of 
your  land  in  his  due  season,  the  former  rain  and  the  latter  rain 
(Deut.  xi.  14).  He  rebuked,  by  the  prophets,  the  apostates, 
because  they  did  not  say  in  their  hearts — Let  us  now  fear  the 
Lord  our  God,  that  giveth  rain,  both  the  former  and  the  latter, 
in  his  season  ;  and  who  reserveth  unto  us  the  appointed  weeks 
of  harvest  (Jer.  v.  24).     There  were  the  two  seasons  of  rain  in 


446  PATIENT  WAITING. 

the  Holy  Land,  the  one  early  in  October  and  November  for  the 
seedtime,  the  other  late  in  March  and  April,  shortly  before  the 
liar\est ;  but  these  signify  all  that  God  does  and  bestows  in  the 
interval  for  the  prosperity  of  the  growth.  In  earthly  things, 
He  is  often  constrained  to  shut  the  lieavens  in  punishment,  to 
send  drought  and  famine ;  and  so  far  the  similitude  does  not 
here  hold  o;ood.  In  regard  to  the  fruit  of  the  kingdom  of 
heaven,  He  gives  nothing  but  His  blessing ;  the  misgrowth  is 
our  own  fault  alone.  Thus  to  the  last  He  sent  down  upon  un- 
believing Israel  the  same  rain  of  grace  in  the  Gospel  and  apos- 
tolical preaching,  which  only  in  the  believing  produced  its  fruit. 
The  Apostle  Paul,  when  he  like  St  James  here  classes  together 
the  condemned  and  the  saved,  says — "  The  earth,  which  drinketh 
in  the  rain  that  cometh  oft  upon  it,  and  bringeth  forth  herbs 
meet  for  them  by  whom  it  is  dressed,  receiveth  blessing  from 
God.  But  that  which  beareth  thorns  and  briers  (although  it 
received  the  same  rain)  is  I'ejected,  and  nigh  unto  cursing ; 
whose  end  is  to  be  burned  "  (Heb.  vi.  7,  8).  Itself  perverted 
the  gracious  rain  into  the  mildew  and  fire  of  curse !  O  how 
had  God  cultivated  His  Israel,  that  when  Christ  came  it  might 
bring  forth  this  fruit  to  Him  !  How  constantly  and  how  faith- 
fully does  He  now  send  down  upon  Christendom  His  pure  grace, 
the  rich  blessing  of  Abraham  in  Christ ! 

What  then  is  this  rain  and  blessing  which  every  one  of  us 
receives  ?  Before  all,  the  word  as  the  seed,  the  gift  and  power 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  word.  But,  in  addition  to  this,  the 
Husbandman,  who  Himself  sends  the  weather  also,  appoints  to 
all  discipline  and  dispensations  of  good  and  evil  which  should 
serve  for  the  welfare  of  His  people.  Not  ive  are  the  makers  of 
the  weather  for  God's  harvest  in  us ;  we  must  patiently  receive 
it,  as  He  wisely  appoints  it.  We  know  not  ourselves  what 
the  weather  of  a  day  may  bring  forth.  But  we  receive  mean- 
while in  obedience  and  patience,  at  God's  own  time,  the  early 
and  the  latter  rain.  Let  us  rightly  understand  this  mystery ! 
There  are  storms,  which  blow  upon  God's  garden,  that  the 
spices  thereof  may  flow  out  (Cant.  iv.  16) — these  are  our  suffer- 
ings and  our  tribulations.  Even  the  harsh  frost  of  winter 
covers  and  nourishes  the  tender  seed.  Therefore  be  patient, 
brethren,  until  the  coming  of  the  Lord ;  be  ye  also  patient,  even 
as  the  Lord  Himself  is ;  take  all  things  from  His  hand  which 


JAMES  V.  7-9.  447 

He  appoints  for  the  precious  fruit.  Ye  sufferers,  too,  mourn 
not  over  the  time  of  stoi*m  or  rain  as  lasting  too  long ;  were  it 
no  longer  necessity,  it  would  not  come,  but  the  Lord  would 
come  instead  with  His  sickle  unto  the  harvest.  Does  it  seem  to 
you  too  long?  Perchance  that  which  you  mourn  over  is  the 
last  rain  shoi'tly  before  the  harvest,  and  which  could  not  be 
withheld.  Therefore  receive  the  consolation  which  is  sent  you 
in  your  trials — Count  it  all  joy  !  Let  your  faith  regard  the  joy 
of  harvest  as  near ;  and  let  your  patience  have  a  perfect  work 
till  the  end. 

Till  the  end  ?  But  that  is  not  far  off !  Near  it  is,  brethren, 
nearer  than  your  impatience  thinks ;  only  your  weakness  of  faith 
thi'ows  it  into  the  distance.  The  Christian,  while  he  waits,  never- 
theless keeps  the  end  always  near  to  his  view.  St  James  could  in 
his  day  predict — The  coming  of  the  Lord  is  at  hand !  And  his 
word  was  soon  confirmed.  But  after  this  first  t^-pical  coming 
of  the  Lord  to  judgment  upon  Israel,  the  faithful  always  re- 
garded the  reserved  and  proper  day  of  judgment  and  redemp- 
tion, the  last  coming  of  their  Lord,  as  nea!r.  The  New  Testa- 
ment, and  the  whole  of  Scripture,  concludes  in  the  Revelation 
of  St  John  with  the  repeated  assurance— The  time  is  at  hand ! 
Behold,  I  come  quickly!  (Rev.  i.  3,  iii.  11,  xxii.  7,  10,  12,  20). 
The  same  answer  and  exhortation  has  hitherto  held  good  for  all 
times,  in  AA^hich  the  Spirit  of  the  Church  has  longingly  cried — 
Come,  Lord  Jesus !  Through  the  whole  of  true  Christianity,  and 
in  the  hearts  of  all  the  holy,  there  lives  a  perpetual  realisation  of 
the  end ;  and  that  is  as  it  should  be.  Our  present  cold  thought 
and  contemplation  of  it,  which  puts  the  last  day  into  the  far  dis- 
tance, is  a  conseqvience  only  of  our  lukewarmness  of  faith  and 
impoverished  love.  Is  it  not  of  the  nature  of  all  earnest  and  long 
ing  waiting  to  bring  near  to  itself  the  object  of  expectation? 
Can  those  who  love  the  Lord's  appearing  (2  Tim.  iv.  8)  endure 
to  regard  it  as  a  distant  and  clouded  f  utm'ity  ?  Is  not  a  con- 
stantly expecting  preparation  better  than  the  wicked  servant's 
spirit — My  Lord  coraeth  not  yet?  (Matt.  xxiv.  48).  To  him  it 
is  said  instead — Behold,  I  will  come  to  thee  quickly !  (Rev.  ii. 
16).  It  is  the  Avill  of  God  that  there  should  be  a  reality  in  the 
continual  presentation  of  the  coming  of  the  Lord  as  near. 
Every  generation  should  wait  for  His  day,  for  to  every  genera- 
tion and  to  every  mortal  the  Lord  already  comes  in  death  :  the 


448  PATIENT  WAITING. 

interval  between  tliat  and  the  last  day  will  indeed  be  to  the 
faithful  shorter  than  we  sometimes  think;  and  the  decision  of 
the  death  in  any  case  is  closely  connected  with  the  final  end. 
Because  for  wise  reasons  this  interval  is  concealed  from  us,  and 
the  day  of  our  death  is  dark,  the  Scripture  sets  before  us  instead 
the  day  of  Christ's  revelation  as  the  bright  goal  of  our  expecta- 
tion :  believers  are  called  generally  in  the  New  Testament  (since 
the  Lord's  parables)  those  who  ivait  for  the  Lord.  He  that 
liveth  soberly,  righteously,  and  godly  in  this  present  world,  looks 
for  the  blessed  hope  and  the  appearing  of  the  glory  of  the  great 
God  and  our  Saviour  (Titus  ii.  12,  13).  Those  who  are  turned 
to  serve  the  living  and  true  God,  are  taught  thereby  to  wait  for 
His  Son  from  heaven,  whom  He  raised  from  the  dead,  even 
Jesus,  who  delivers  us  from  coming  wrath  (1  Thess.  i.  9,  10). 
When  He  shall  come  a  second  time.  He  will  come  for  salvation 
to  those  who  look  for  Him  (Heb.  ix.  28).  And  we  all  know  the 
great  word — Our  conversation  is  in  heaven,  from  whence  we 
look  for  the  Saviour !  (Phil.  iii.  20).  This  waiting  of  believers 
is  the  mystery  of  their  life  in  faith,  to  which  the  future  is  even 
now  in  the  present :  thus,  if  they  walk  in  the  light  of  the  great 
day,  their  whole  conduct  is  at  once  a  waiting  for  and  a  hasten- 
iyig  unto  the  future  of  the  day  of  the  Lord  (2  Pet.  iii.  12). 
At  once  awaiting  and  hastening — may  seem  a  contradiction  to 
the  understanding ;  internal  experience  reconciles  them,  when 
we  are  taught  of  the  Spirit  as  longingly,  as  patiently,  to  live  for 
the  day  of  the  Lord. 

If  thus  our  whole  life  in  time  is,  as  becometh  Christians, 
a  patient  waiting  for  the  near  approach  of  the  Lord — what  fol- 
lows according  to  the  word  of  our  present  text  ?  This  waiting 
strengfJiens  the  heart  in  all  good,  warns  and  confirms  it  against 
all  evil. 

Be  ye  also  patient,  and  strengthen  your  hearts  !  Thus  St 
James  means  no  idle  waiting,  no  dreaming  and  enthusiastic 
looking  upward  to  heaven,  which  forgets  the  earth  iipon  which 
the  precious  fruit  must  ripen.  The  earthly  similitude  for 
heavenly  things  does  not  here  hold  altogether :  the  husbandman 
must,  after  the  preparation  and  sowing,  almost  only  wait ;  he  can 
do  but  little  for  his  field,  upon  which  the  rain  cometh  down.  But 
in  the  spiritual  seedtime  and  harvest  there  is  hard  work  in  the 
interval.     The  Lord  above  waits  and  loorks ;  and  in  His  work- 


JAMES  V.  7-9.  449 

ing  we  also  secure  our  salvation,  in  the  continuous  seed  of  good 
works  and  salutary  sufferings.  Let  us  do  good,  while  we  have 
opportunity,  and  faint  not ;  so  shall  we  also  reap  in  due  time 
without  ceasing!  (Gal.  vi.  9).  Every  truly  good  work  is  one 
seedcorn  more,  for  the  increase  of  the  ears  and  sheaves ;  but 
every  sin  of  omission  is  itself  a  deduction  from  the  full  reward. 
For  he  that  knoweth  to  do  good,  and  doeth  it  not,  to  him  it  is 
sin !  Therefore  strengthen  your  hearts  to  labour,  as  Azariah 
the  son  of  Obed  exliorted — Be  ye  strong  therefore,  and  let  not 
your  hands  he  weak ;  for  your  work  shall  be  rewarded  (2  Chron. 
XV.  7).  So  the  holy  Apostle :  Be  ye  stedfast,  unmoveable, 
always  abounding  in  the  work  of  the  Lord ;  forasmuch  as  ye 
know  that  your  labour  is  not  in  vain  in  the  Lord  (1  Cor.  xv. 
58).  But  the  great  and  fundamental  work  is  that  of  ^a^ze«ce, 
which  receives  the  rain  and  endures  the  heat  until  the  fruits  be 
ripe;  receiving  and  suffering  as  from  the  Lord  all  discipline 
and  correction.  This  patience  is  strong  in  faith,  and  firm  in 
the  hope  of  the  certain  promise ;  it  is  immovably  unmurmur- 
ing toward  God,  and  humble  toward  man ;  silently  submissive, 
and  therefore  deeply  strong.  "  In  returning  and  rest  shall  ye 
be  saved ;  in  quietness  and  confidence  shall  be  your  strength" 
(Is.  XXX.  15). 

Thus  we  are  then  further  warned  and  defended  against 
every  evil,  against  even  that  slightest  and  most  secret  guilt  of 
the  heart  which  might  be  exceedingly  evil  in  its  consequence. 
Groan  not  one  against  another,  brethren,  that  ye  may  not  be 
condemned !  Behold,  the  Judge  standeth  before  the  door. 
Where  there  reigns  that  patient  temper  of  the  heart  which  waits 
for  the  Lord,  and  looks  for  the  precious  fruit,  there  can  be  no 
room  for  gross  external  sins  against  the  law  of  love.  There- 
fore St  James  does  not  here  allude  to  them ;  he  does  not  even 
say  as  before — Speak  not  evil  one  of  another !  For  he  who  does 
that,  has  already  forgotten  entirely  the  Judge  and  the  compas- 
sionate Saviour.  The  suffering  just  man  submits  to  be  judged — 
like  his  Saviour,  from  whom  his  righteousness  cometh — even  unto 
death,  and  doth  not  resist.  St  James  takes  that  for  granted : 
but  are  we  not  merely  to  sigh  ?  Is  not  that  demanding  an  im- 
possibility ?  Let  us,  however,  understand  it  aright.  The  sigh- 
ing of  the  suffering  oppressed  is  not  wrong  in  itself,  and  can 
never  cease.    We  sigh  over  the  ungodly  in  their  misery.     Those 

2r 


450  PATIENT  WAITING. 

who  took  away  the  sheaf  from  the  hungry,  Job  says,  made  men 
groan  from  out  of  the  city  (Job.  xxiv.  12).  And  Solomon  says 
— AYlien  the  righteous  are  increased,  the  people  rejoice ;  but 
when  the  wicked  beareth  rule,  the  people  sigh  (Prov.  xxix.  2). 
They  sigh  to  God,  the  Judge  and  Avenger,  the  Helper  and 
Redeemer.  Even  the  Apostle  recognises  a  sighing  of  the  hus- 
bandmen over  unfruitful  fields,  when  he  says — "Obey  them  that 
have  the  rule  over  you,  and  submit  yourselves  ;  for  they  watch 
for  your  souls,  as  they  that  must  give  account,  that  they  may  do 
it  with  joy,  and  not  with  sighing :  for  that  is  unprofitable  for 
yoxC  (Heb.  xiii.  17).  But  quite  different  is  that  sighing  against 
one  another,  which  might  become  the  cause  of  our  condemna- 
tion. The  oppressed  Church  crieth  and  mourneth  to  her  Lord, 
like  the  poor  widow — Avenge  me  of  mine  adversary  !  and  His 
elect  cry  day  and  night  to  their  patient  God  !  (Luke  xviii.  3,  7). 
But  they  well  know  him  who  is  the  essential  adversary,  the 
Devil ;  as  it  respects  persecuting  men,  they  sigh  not  and  cry  not 
for  vengeance,  but  pray  for  them  who  despitefully  use  them,  as 
children  of  Him  whose  sunshine  and  rain  of  grace  are  never 
withheld  while  the  day  of  mercy  holds  out.  Be  ye  therefore 
patient,  brethren  !  Murmur  not  against  God  ;  groan  not  against 
the  sinners  whose  misery  will  quickly  enough  hasten  upon  them ; 
vv^ish  not,  against  the  patience  of  the  Lord,  that  the  judgment 
would  come,  which  will  soon  enough  recompense  fearful  tribu- 
lation to  them  that  trouble  you,  and  bring  eternal  rest  to  you 
who  are  troubled  (2  Thess.  i.  G,  7).  Least  of  all  sigh  against 
one  another,  ye  that  are  yet  brethren.  Let  every  one  bear  his 
brother's  burden,  and  have  patience  with  him  in  his  weakness. 
Let  no  man  complain  to  God  against  his  brother  for  giving  him 
a  heavy  burden  to  bear.  For  he  who  thus  groans  against  him, 
has  not  forgiven  him ;  and  he  that  forgives  not,  shall  not  be 
forgiven,  but  shall  be  condemned  !  If  the  Lord  come  to  thee, 
while  thou  art  murmuring  in  bitterness  and  without  love, — 
what  judgment  might  befall  thee  !  Therefore  still  your  hearts 
before  the  Judge,  even  as  ye  stablish  them  before  the  Redeemer. 
Behold,  the  Judge  standeth  before  the  door — this  is  always  true 
until  He  cometh — not  merely  as  it  respects  them,  but  also  in 
your  own  case.  He  standeth  before  the  door  of  your  houses, 
your  hearts ;  He  hears  and  marks  your  sighing,  which  is  not 
concealed  from  Him ;    He  reckoneth  all  righteously  for  the 


JAMES  V.  10,  11.  451 

future  fruit.  Be  patient !  If  any  man  suffer,  let  him  cry  to 
the  Lord,  and  He  will  be  near  to  him,  and  strengthen  him 
by  the  prospect  of  His  speedy  coming.  But  in  all  his  lamenta- 
tion before  the  Lord,  let  him  not  oToan  against  his  neiohbom' : 
so  will  the  Lord  receive  him,  and  make  him  by  His  Spirit 
patiently  ready  for  the  precious  fruit. 


XXVIII. 

THE  EXAMPLES  OF  SUTFEEING  AND  PATIENCE. 

(Ch.  V.  10,  11.) 

Take,  my  brethren,  the  prophets,  who  have  spoken  in  the  name  of  the  Lord, 
for  an  example  of  suffering  affliction,  and  of  patience.  Behold,  we  count 
them  happy  which  endure.  Ye  have  heard  of  the  patience  of  Job,  and 
have  seen  the  end  of  the  Lord ;  that  the  Lord  is  very  pitiful,  and  of  ten- 
der mercy. 

"  Be  patient !  Sufferings  are  to  men  inevitable  ;  and  in  this 
there  is  the  goodwill  and  counsel  of  God.  Tribulation  and  trial 
is  wholesome  :  it  tends  to  improve,  test,  purify,  confirm  them. 
Be  ye  specially  patient,  ye  chikh'en  of  God,  ye  disciples  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  ;  for  that  ye  suffer  a  while  with  the  Lord  Jesus  is 
the  appointed  and  foretrodden  way  for  you  to  all  the  greater 
glory."  This  is  the  doctrine  upon  which  all  Scripture  expatiates ; 
and  herein  is  this  Book  of  books  incomparable,  that  it  constantly 
and  faithfvilly  gives  the  right  word  of  instruction  and  exhorta- 
tion to'those  who  suffer — that  we  through  patience  and  comfort 
of  the  Scriptures  might  have  hope  (Rom.  xv.  4).  But  still 
more  strongly  do  the  examples  encourage  and  affect  us — the 
living  examples  and  narratives  which  bring  these  great  truths 
most  clearly  before  both  our  ears  and  our  eyes.  This  the  gra- 
cious God  well  knew  ;  and  therefore,  as  life  is  everywhere  rich 
in  teaching  and  warning  examples,  so  is  the  history  of  God's 
people  in  the  Scriptures  rich  in  personal  instruction.  St  James 
turns  to  them  after  his  exhortation,  and  points  us  to  the  exam- 
ples of  suffering  and  of  patience. 

Examples  of  suff'ering  generally  —  are  everj^where  to  be 
found ;  we  need  not  go  to  seek  them  in  ancient  books,  or  even 


452  THE  EXAMPLES  OF  SUFFEKING  AND  PATIENCE. 

in  the  Scriptures ;  no  human  hfe  is  altogether  without  them. 
If  your  own  has  been  hitherto  nearly  free,  look  around  and  see 
how  others  are  called  to  suffer.  Ask  the  physicians  and  pastors, 
who  have  to  do  with  men's  sufferings  in  body  and  sovil ;  ask  all 
who  know  what  human  life  is  ;  look  where  you  will  into  the  his- 
tories of  the  present  and  the  past : — examples  of  suffering  are 
nowhere  wanting.  If  sudden  tribulation  come  upon  your  happy 
and  sheltered  life,  and  you  first  think  it  strange  (as  men  com- 
monly do),  as  if  some  strange  tiling  happened  to  thee  (1  Pet. 
iv.  12) — then  look  around,  and  you  will  see  that  it  is  only  the 
common  lot  of  the  children  of  men.  We  generally  then  first 
really  mark  the  sufferings  of  others,  when  we  become  their  fel- 
lows in  suffering.  A  very  small  thing  possibly  may  cause  us  to 
cry  out  at  once — Why  am  I  thus  smitten  ?  and  much  too  soon 
we  adopt  the  song — Behold  and  see  if  there  be  any  sorrow  like 
unto  my  sorrow,  which  is  done  unto  me  !  (Lament,  i.  12). 
Behold  and  see  yourselves,  and  you  will  find  everywhere  what 
will  rebuke  your  impatience.  How  would  it  be,  if  those  suffer- 
ings were  to  fall  upon  you,  examples  of  which  may  be  seen  in 
this  or  that  man  ? 

But  why  do  we  speak  merely  of  examples  of  suffering  ?  How 
great  is  the  difference  in  those  sufferings,  according  to  the  man- 
ner in  which  the  sufferers  bear  them  !  Some  there  are  who 
receive  joyfully  the  hardest  afflictions,  or  at  least  so  patiently 
and  resignedly,  with  all  their  weakness,  that  they  learn  to  endure 
them  better  and  better  the  longer  they  continue  and  the  more 
they  increase  !  Others  make  to  themselves  great  burdens  out  of 
little  troixbles,  kick  as  foolishly  as  vainly  against  their  trials,  em- 
bittering their  own  lives  and  the  lives  of  all  about  them  !  Hast 
thou  been  such  a  stranger  and  pilgrim  in  the  world  as  not  to  have 
seen  these  things  ?  Examjyles  of  impatience  are  never  far  to 
seek ;  and  it  is  a  good  thing  to  behold  them,  that  we  may  learn 
lessons  from  their  folly.  But  much  better  are  those  examples  of 
suffering  and  patience,  of  which  St  James  here  speaks.  They 
are  not  so  plentiful  as  the  others,  but,  thank  God  !  there  are 
enough  to  be  found,  if  we  inquire  for  them.  It  is  for  us  to 
learn,  to  tahe  what  we  find  as  our  example.  And  why  should 
we  not  also,  if  the  Lord  will,  become  such  blessed  examples 
ourselves  ?  To  give  an  example  of  patience,  is  among  the  most 
precious  of  good  works,  more  precious  than  many  of  those  good 


JAMES  V.  10,  11.  453 

works  which  you  complain  against  affliction  for  denying  yon 
time  to  perform.  How  many  have  transmitted  to  children  and 
children's  childi'en  the  touching  image  of  their  patience,  as  the 
good  seedcorn  bears  fruit  long  afterwards,  preaching  more  liv- 
ingly  than  all  doctrine — The  patient  in  spirit  is  better  than  the 
proud  in  spirit !  (Eccles.  vii.  8). 

All  this  St  James  presupposes  ;  and  to  all  this  he  points,  when 
he  begins  to  speak  of  the  example  of  suffering  and  patience.  But 
here  he  has  specially  to  do  with  the  brethren's  sufferings  for  right- 
eousness' sake;  with  the  oppression,  persecution, shame,  and  oppo- 
sition, which  Christians  encounter  as  Christians  :  therefore  he 
would  excite  to  patience  by  examples.  He  might  have  referred  the 
one  class  to  the  example  of  the  other,  the  impatient  to  the  patient ; 
but  because  he  cannot,  in  this  general  Epistle,  give  prominence 
to  individual  personal  characters  of  the  present,  he  turns  to  the 
past,  which  still  better  exhibits  the  counsel  and  will  of  God  that 
His  people  must  suffer,  as  a  counsel  extending  to  all  times.  He 
turns  to  the  histories  of  Scripture,  which  he  presumes  his  readers 
to  be  acquainted  with,  or  would  thereby  excite  them  to  seek  out. 
He  acts  like  his  Master,  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  (which  he 
has  steadily  in  view  through  the  Epistle),  when  He  counted  the 
persecuted  for  righteousness'  sake  happy,  and  said — For  so  per- 
secuted they  the  prophets,  which  were  before  you  !  (Matt.  v.  12). 
Thus,  here — Take,  for  example  of  suffering  and  patience,  the 
prophets,  who  spoke  in  the  name  of  the  Lord.  Who  spoke  to 
you — is  not  in  the  original  text :  it  is,  indeed,  true  that  they 
always  spoke  for  us  and  to  us,  as  to  the  fathers  ;  but  St  James 
omits  this,  where  he  is  only  indicating  the  high  dignity  of  the 
elect  messengers  of  God,  who  notwithstanding  that  dignity  suf- 
fered so  much.  To  speak  in  the  Lord's  name  to  His  people,  to 
His  men — what  an  honoui-  is  this ;  but  also  what  a  source  of 
distress  and  scorn  to  all  the  servants  of  God,  and  witnesses  of 
His  truth  !  Look  only  to  their  life,  only  read  the  histories 
of  the  prophets  in  Scripture,  and  take  the  example  which  they 
give  !  That  is,  in  a  certain  sense,  the  great  fundamental  ex- 
ample which  the  Spirit  of  God  sets  before  you. 

Should  not  the  ancient  people  have  received  their  prophets 
as  angels  of  God;  as  in  the  beginning  the  Galatians  received 
the  Apostle  Paul, — Avho,  if  it  had  been  possible,  would  have 
plucked  out  their  eyes  and  given  him  ?  (Gal.  iv.  14,  15).   Alas, 


454:  THE  EXAMPLES  OF  SUFFERING  AXD  PATIENCE. 

as  they  turned  against  the  Apostle,  and  held  him  as  their  enemy 
because  he  told  them  the  truth  (ver.  16),  so  was  it  with  the 
ancient  prophets !  The  very  people  who  boasted  that  theirs 
were  the  prophets,  persecuted  those  prophets ;  their  posterity 
adorned  their  graves  and  monuments,  but  their  fathers  had 
killed  them.  In  the  fatherland  of  the  prophets,  not  one  of 
them  was  accepted ;  the  Lord,  like  St  James,  set  forth  the  pro- 
phets generally  as  sufferers ;  and  Stephen  boldly  asks,  Which  of 
the  prophets  had  not  been  evil-entreated  in  his  time  ?  (Acts  vii. 
52).  That  which  the  New  Testament  expressly  asserts,  was  in 
the  great  mercy  and  gentleness  of  God  recorded  in  the  Old 
Testament  of  but  few,  and  nowhere  in  these  direct  terms.  Yet 
we  hear  once,  in  the  prayer  of  Nehemiah — They  slew  Thy  pro- 
phets which  testified  against  them  !  (Neh.  ix.  26).  Leaving 
out  of  sight  what  the  traditions  and  histories  of  the  Jews  (some- 
times true  enough)  record  of  many,  such  as  Isaiah,  Ezekiel,  and 
Amos,  we  need  only  remind  ourselves  of  what  is  merely  nari'ated 
in  Scripture. 

Takp,  for  example,  the  first  great  prophet,  Moses  :  how 
he  at  the  outset,  before  the  Lord  called  him  to  speak  and  save 
and  judge  in  His  name,  was  obliged  to  endure  for  forty  years 
among  the  sheep  in  the  wilderness ;  and  how  full  was  his  great 
office,  from  beginning  to  end,  of  buixlen  and  care.  In  Egypt 
and  at  the  Red  Sea,  in  the  wilderness  and  on  the  border  of  the 
promised  land,  the  word  was  fulfilled  which  he  said  to  his  Lord 
— Beliold,  they  will  not  believe  me,  nor  hearken  unto  my  voice 
(Ex.  iv.  1).  All  past  miracles  are  forgotten,  if  new  ones  do  not 
quickly  follow ;  and  always  the  people  murmur  against  this 
Tyloses.  Did  he  not  cry  in  Rephidim  unto  God — What  shall  I 
do  unto  this  people  ?  They  be  almost  ready  to  stone  me  !  (Ex. 
xvii.  4).  Read  all  these  narratives,  and  marvel  at  the  patience 
of  forty  years  of  such  complaints !  When  it  once  came  to  such 
a  point  that  his  sister  Miriam  the  prophetess,  and  his  brother 
Aaron  the  high  priest,  spoke  against  him,  and  said — "Hath  the 
Lord,  indeed,  spoken  only  by  Moses?  Hath  He  not  spoken 
also  by  us?"  a  later  ti'anscriber  of  the  book,  in  which  Moses 
calmly  related  all  as  if  he  spoke  of  another,  must  needs  interpo- 
late the  words — "  Xow  the  man  J\Ioses  was  much  tried,  above 
all  the  men  which  were  upon  the  face  of  the  earth ;"  and  we 
may  vmderstand  it — "  the  most  patient"  (Num.  xii.  2,  3). 


JAJMES  V.  10,  11.  4oa 

Take  again,  for  example,  that  second  great  prophet  and 
worker  of  miracles,  who,  with  Moses,  spake  to  the  Lord  Jesus 
conceniinsr  His  sufferings  on  the  jSlount  of  Transfiguration, 
Elijah,  the  man  of  fiery  zeal !  It  would  be  too  much  to  recomat 
his  entire  history,  to  those  who  know  it  not.  Those  who  Iviiovv^ 
it  Mill  remember  his  unsuccessful  work  among  his  people,  which 
did  not  forsake  Baal,  and  upon  the  king,  who  sold  himself  to 
Jezebel ;  and  that  when  he  lay  under  the  Juniper,  with  almost 
exhausted  patience,  and  cried — It  is  enough.  Lord,  take  my 
life  (1  Kings  xix.  4),  the  Lord  strengthened  him  to  go  on  his 
way,  and  not  forget  mercv  in  his  zeal. 

Think  f m-ther  of  Isaiah,  that  prince  and  Evangelist  among 
the  prophets,  whose  words  are  so  abundantly  given  to  us.  His 
first  appointment  told  him  (ch.  vi.)  that  the  hardened  people 
would  not  hear  and  understand  him ;  and  how  did  he,  through 
a  long  prophetic  life  under  four  kings,  speak  words  to  them  of 
fear  and  consolation,  which  we  are  now  beginning  first  to  im- 
derstand !  When  he  predicts  the  future  Servant  of  God,  and  the 
reproach  and  sufferings  of  Christ — did  he  not  (like  David) 
typically  experience  in  himself  what  he  could  therefore  speak 
as  also  a  servant  of  God  ?  Did  he  not  himself  complain  as  the 
servant  of  God — "Then  I  said,  I  have  laboured  in  vain ;  I  have 
spent  my  strength  for  nought,  and  in  vain :  yet  sui'ely  my  judg- 
ment is  with  the  Lord,  and  my  work  is  my  God's  ?"  (Isa  xlix.  4). 
And  so  also  as  the  type  of  Christ  he  declared  his  own  experience 
— "I  gave  my  back  to  the  smiters,  and  my  cheeks  to  them  that 
plucked  off  the  hair :  I  hid  not  my  face  from  shame  and  spit- 
ting. For  the  Lord  God  helpeth  me ;  therefore  shall  I  not  be 
confounded ;  therefore  have  I  set  my  face  like  a  flint,  for  I  Ivuow 
that  I  shall  not  be  ashamed"  (ch.  1.  6,  7). 

But  among  all  the  prophets  whose  fives  and  sufferings  are  re- 
corded in  Scriptiu'e,  Jeremiah  is  the  most  marked,  whose  whole  life 
was  as  it  were  a  Lamentation,  and  whose  history,  interwoven  with 
his  words,  has  ever  been  a  miiTor  of  consolation  to  the  preacher 
of  righteousness.  He  bore  the  sin  of  his  people  upon  his  heart 
and  in  his  heart.  "I  sat  not"  —  so  he  says  (according  to  the  right 
translation)  —  "in  the  assembly  of  the  mockers,  nor  rejoiced ;  I  sat 
alone  before  Thv  hand ;  for  thou  hast  filled  me  with  indigna- 
tion.  Why  is  my  pain  perpetual,  and  my  wound  incm-able, 
which  refuseth  to  be  healed?  Thou  hast  become  to  me  as  waters 


456  THE  EXAMPLES  OF  SUFFEKING  AND  PATIENCE. 

that  flow  no  more"  (ch.  xv.  17,  18).  So  he  complains  to  the 
Lord ;  but  the  Lord  heals  him,  and  His  mercies  flow ;  yet  He 
gives  him  no  rest,  for  he  must  continue  his  testimony  in  scorn 
and  persecution.  We  hear  him  saying — "  O  Lord,  Thou  hast 
persuaded  me,  and  I  was  persuaded  :  Thou  art  stronger  than  I, 
and  hast  prevailed ;  hut  I  am  in  derision  daily,  and  every  one 
mocketh  me.  For  since  I  cried  out  concerning  the  violence 
and  spoil,  the  word  of  the  Lord  was  made  a  reproach  unto  me, 
and  a  derision  daily.  Then  I  thought,  I  will  not  make  mention 
of  Him,  nor  speak  any  more  in  His  name.  But  His  word  was 
in  my  heart  as  a  burning  fire  shut  up  in  my  bones,  and  I  was 
weary  with  forbearing,  and  could  not  stay.  For  I  heard  the 
defaming  of  many,  fear  on  every  side.  Keport  against  him ! 
yea,  we  will  report  against  him !  Said  all  my  familiars,  Perad- 
venture  he  will  be  enticed,  and  we  shall  prevail  against  him, 
and  we  shall  take  our  revenge  upon  him  "  (ch.  xx.  7-10).  More 
than  once  Jeremiah  is  imprisoned,  and  cast  into  the  pit.  The 
book  of  his  sayings,  which  was  read  before  king  Jehoiakira, 
during  the  prophet's  imprisonment,  was  in  the  king's  wrath  torn 
and  burnt ;  but  it  is  wi'itten  again,  and  the  fulfilment  of  the 
threatened  judgment  comes.  He  there  forbids  the  residue  of 
Judah  to  go  down  to  Egypt — and  of  what  avail  is  his  word? 
They  carry  himself  bound  with  them  into  Egypt,  and  boldly 
say: — "As  for  the  word  that  thou  hast  spoken  to  us  in  the 
name  of  the  Lord,  we  will  not  hearken  unto  thee.  But  we  will 
certainly  do  whatsoever  thing  goeth  forth  out  of  our  own  mouth, 
to  burn  incense  unto  the  Melecheth  of  heaven!"  (ch.  xliv.  16, 

Let  this  suffice  for  the  answer  of  the  question — Are  there 
not  examples  of  suffering  and  patience  among  the  prophets? 
Thou  that  complainest  of  a  little  contradiction  of  sinners,  and 
canst  not  sustain  thy  soul  under  it — compare  thyself  with  these 
men  of  God !  Art  thou  greater  than  they  ?  Is  thy  lot  Avorse 
than  theirs  ?  Dost  thou,  expect  to  be  spared,  when  all  the  ser- 
vants of  God  have  been  required  thus  to  suffer  ?  Or  dost  thou 
think  that  thou  will  be  able  by  prudence  to  escape  persecution  ? 
Behold  how  impossible  that  is.  Behold  the  whole  series  of 
prophets  as  one  example  before  thine  eyes ;  yea,  add  to  them, 
what  St  James  would  not  add,  the  Ajyostles  of  Jesus  Christ, 
and  among  them  St  Paul,  to  whom  it  was  appointed  of  the 


JAMES  V.  10,  11.  457 

Lord — I  Avill  show  him  how  many  things  he  must  suffer  for 
My  name  (Acts  ix.  16).  And  wouldst  thou  seek  in  any  other 
way  to  serve  the  Lord  in  comfort,  to  obtain  salvation  without 
endurance  ? 

Beliold,  loe  count  them  happy  icMch  endure  !  Thus  St  James 
goes  back  to  the  beginning  of  his  Epistle — Blessed  is  the  man 
that  endureth  temptation ;  for  when  he  is  tried,  he  shall  receive 
the  crown  of  life.  But  'not  until  he  hath  endured  his  trial ! 
O  how  infinitely  better  is  this  Blessed,  than  the  Woe  upon 
those  who  have  nourished  their  hearts  !  We  already  count  the 
pious  blessed  who  hold  out;  and  not  inappropriately,  for  the 
true  word  of  God  gives  us  that  direction :  how  will  heaven 
count  them  blessed,  and  the  faithful  Lord  make  them  so  !  We 
poor  sinners  in  om'  natural  sympathy  are  glad  to  say,  when  we 
can — Well  for  him,  he  has  strusiiled  through  !  What  will  the 
Lord,  who  is  very  pitiful  and  full  of  compassion,  do  to  com- 
pensate superabundantly  the  afflictions  with  which  He  did  not 
willingly  afflict  His  children  ?  (Lam.  iii.  33).  Let,  then,  our 
faith  anticipate  this  consolation  of  hope  in  the  midst  of  all  our 
short  afflictions  !  We  can  already  count  them  happy  that  endure, 
and  say  so  for  their  encouragemenc :  but  let  us  take  care  that 
the  words  of  Job's  wife  may  never  apply  to  us — "  Behold,  thou 
hast  instructed  many,  and  thovi  hast  strengthened  the  weak 
hands ;  thy  Avords  have  upholden  him  that  was  falling,  and  thou 
hast  strengthened  the  feeble  knees.  But  now  it  is  come  upon 
thee,  and  thou  faintest;  it  toucheth  thee,  and  thou  art  troubled !" 
(Job  iv.  3-5).  That  may  not  apply  to  us,  did  I  say?  Alas,  I 
must  retract  the  word ;  for  more  or  less  they  a!pply  to  us  all. 
This  is  our  infirmity ;  and  yet  with  this  oiu*  f aintness  patience 
may  very  well  consist — that  patience  which  the  Lord  requires, 
and  approves  in  us.  Behold,  that  same  Joh,  who  fainted  and 
murmured,  is  here  once  more  in  Holy  Scripture,  long  after  the 
time  of  his  endurance,  counted  happy  and  blessed. 

Ye  have  heard  of  the  patience  of  Joh :  thus  speaks  St  James 
further  in  the  name  of  the  Lord ;  gi\'ing  the  man  in  the  land 
of  Uz  the  honour  of  naming  him  alone  after  all  the  prophets  ! 
He  solemnly  confirms  the  proverbial  saying  among  the  Israelites, 
according  to  which  the  apocryphal  writer,  after  recording  the 
trial  of  Tobias,  adds — "  This  tribulation  God  sent  to  him,  that 
those  who  came  after  him  might  have  an  example  of  patience, 


458  THE  EXAJMPLES  OF  SUFFERING  AND  PATIENCE. 

even  as  the  holy  Job"  (Tob.  ii.  12).  But  still  more  valid  and 
decisive  is  the  praise  of  Job  in  the  lioly  Scriptui'e,  where  the 
Lord  Himself  says  by  Ezekiel,  that  even  the  three  men, 
Noah,  Daniel,  and  Job,  should  in  a  sinful  land  save  only  their 
own  souls  by  their  righteousness  (Ezek.  xiv.  14).  We  learn 
there,  as  we  learn  here  from  St  James,  that  the  man  Job 
actually  lived  like  Noah,  Daniel,  and  all  the  prophets ;  that  the 
narrative  of  his  life  is  not  an  instructive  poem,  but  a  real 
history.  At  that  time  most  people  had  only  lieard  of  him  ;  for 
reading  was  confined  to  the  learned,  and  even  they  had  not 
always  all  the  books  of  Scripture.  Have  loe  rightly  read  the 
book  of  Job  ?  Alas,  Luther's  translation  of  this  obscure  and 
difficult  book  is  very  imperfect ;  the  corrected  translation  will 
alone  exhibit  the  proper  book  of  Job  ! 

But,  it  may  be  said,  was  Job  actually  an  example  of  suffer- 
ing affliction  and  of  patience  ?  His  name  is  indeed  proverbial 
for  bitter  and  fearful  suffering;  and  his  sufferings  were  not, 
like  those  of  the  prophets,  endured  in  the  name  and  for  the 
sake  of  the  Lord,  but  for  his  own  purification  and  confirmation 
in  godliness — on  account  of  the  Accuser,  who  demanded  from 
the  Lord  this  power  over  him.  This  is  one  cause  why  St  James 
adds  his  name  to  the  prophets,  that  he  may  point  to  such  pecidiar 
Job-sufferings.  But,  did  Job  stand  in  the  trial  ?  Often  is  he 
quoted  as  a  warning  example  of  nuu'muring  and  impatience. 
Assuredly,  though  he  did  not  at  the  first,  yet  he  soon  did,  sin 
with  his  lips ;  we  find  in  his  words  the  strongest  outbursts  of 
human  agony,  and  bold  words  of  self-jvis'tification  before  his 
God ;  yea,  he  cursed  the  day  of  his  birth,  as  Jeremiah  also  did. 
But  throughout  all  he  remained  sincere,  according  to  that 
measure  of  grace  which  alone  he  could  receive  in  his  day ;  his 
weakness,  however,  was  stronger  and  better  than  the  uncha- 
ritable and  falsely-wise  judging  of  his  friends.  We  learn  here, 
also,  that  no  human  example  of  patience  is  perfectly  pure  before 
the  Lord,  and  that  the  merciful  judgment  of  the  Lord  is  not, 
therefore,  restricted.  It  is  wrong  that  we  should  dwell  more 
on  Job's  murmuring  than  upon  his  patience ;  for  the  Lord 
forgave  the  infirmity,  washed  away  the  sin,  and  in  the  end 
uttered  His  judgment  upon  the  others — Ye  have  not  spoken  of 
Me  the  thing  that  is  right,  as  My  servant  Job  hath  done !  Go 
to  ^fy  servant  Job,  and  he  shall  pray  for  you  !  (ch.  xlii.  7,  8). 


jAiiES  V.  10,  11.  459 

Therefore  let  us  rather  keep  m  remembrance  that  first  word, 
which  has  been  the  comfort  of  thousands  upon  thousands — 
The  Lord  gave,  and  the  Lord  hath  taken  away  :  Blessed  be 
the  name  of  the  Lord  (ch.  i.  21) ;  and  that  last  word — There- 
fore I  abhor  myself,  and  repent  in  dust  and  ashes !  (ch.  xlii.  G). 
Let  us,  as  is  most  fit,  not  look  at  the  troubled  course  of  the 
middle  of  his  conflict,  but  at  the  victory  which  the  mercy  of 
the  Lord  gave  him,  to  the  end  of  that  patience  which  the 
Supreme  acknowledged ! 

It  is  that  which  St  James  means  in  the  following  word — • 
And  have  seen  tlie  end  of  the  Lord  ;  that  is,  the  end  which  the 
Lord  put  to  the  sufferings  of  Job,  so  gloriously  and  superabun- 
dantly recompensing  him.  On  a  hasty  glance,  we  might  under- 
stand the  words  otherwise,  as  if  St  James  would  go  on  to  speak, 
after  Job,  of  the  issue  of  the  suffeiings  of  the  Lord,  that  is,  of 
Jesus  Christ.  It  might  be  wondered  at  that  he  leaves  unmen- 
tioned  the  only  perfect  example  of  patience,  nor  ever  expressly 
points  to  Him  who  was  the  Beginner  and  Finisher  of  the  faith, 
who  for  the  joy  set  before  Him  endured  the  cross  and  despised 
the  shame  (Heb.  xii.  2).  The  patience  of  this  Supreme  Endurer, 
this  Just  One  who  was  condemned  and  resisted  not  (ver.  6),  had 
not  been  actually  seen  by  all  the  readers  of  this  Epistle,  who 
lived  in  the  Dispersion,  above  five  and  twenty  years  after  the 
crucifixion ;  consequently,  the  distinction  between  this  and  the 
ancient  history  of  Job,  which  is  said  to  have  been  only  heard 
of,  falls  down  to  the  ground.  Moreover,  it  would  not  be  appro- 
priate to  speak  of  the  death  of  Christ  as  His  end.  St  James 
speaks  of  Him  as  the  Lord  of  glory  (ch.  ii.  1) — as  the  Judge 
standing  before  the  door !  And  can  he  mean  Him,  when  he 
says — The  end  of  the  Lord ;  just  as  he  said  before — The  pro- 
phets who  spdke  in  the  name  of  the  Lord?  And  the  conclusion  is 
against  this  meaning  of  the  word — For  the  Lord  is  very  pitiful, 
and  of  great  compassion.  We  see,  therefore,  that  St  James  is 
limiting  himself,  for  the  sake  of  his  Israelitish  readers,  to 
examples  taken  from  the  ancient  Scripture,  among  which  that 
of  Job  naturally  takes  the  highest  place.  He  says,  "  Ye  have 
seen  the  end  of  the  Lord" — not  of  Job — in  order  to  strengthen 
the  previous  "heard;"  and  further,  to  say  that  such  histories, 
though  only  heard,  are  as  it  were  livingly  presented  before  our 
eyes  in  then*  reality  for  all  ages. 


460  THE  i:X.VMPLES  OF  SUFFERING  A^D  PATIENCE. 

Job's  affliction  was  upon  earth  turned  into  joy,  in  perfect 
conformity  with  the  degree  of  his  faith,  and  the  plans  of  God, 
in  that  period.  The  Lord  turned  the  captivity  of  Job,  and 
gave  him  twice  as  much  as  he  had  had  before.  This  is  an  Old- 
Testament  type  of  the  eternal  compensation  resei'ved  for  us 
Christians,  who,  in  richer  light  and  greater  grace,  look  forward 
to  another  world.  Suffering  and  dying  Christians  sometimes 
receive  from  that  world  a  gleam  of  glory  as  to  the  earthly  end 
of  their  patience,  so  that  it  may  be  said  of  them — Consider  the 
end  of  their  conversation  and  follow  their  faith  !  (Heb.  xiii.  7). 
Who  does  not  count  the  death  of  Stephen  glorious  ?  But 
where  this  is  not  to  be  seen,  we  should  yet  confidently  hope  for 
the  precious  fruit  of  the  tearful  sowing.  We  should  strengthen 
that  hope  by  all  that  we  have  seen  of  Job-histories  upon  earth ; 
and  hold  fast  the  blessed  conclusion  which  St  James  by  the 
Spirit  adds. 

For  the  Lord  is  very  pitiful,  full  of  compassion,  and  of  ten- 
der mercy  !  This  conclusion  first  gives  us  the  full  and  profound 
solution  of  the  meaning  of  our  text.  Because  the  Lord  is  very 
pitiful.  He  sent  help  at  the  right  time  to  the  hardly-beset  Job  ; 
and  with  the  temptation  opened  a  loay  of  escape,  that  he  might 
be  able  to  bear  it  (1  Cor.  x.  13).  Therefore  He  entered  Him- 
self upon  the  scene,  and  put  an  end  to  all  the  folly  of  the  men 
who  surrounded  Job,  which  only  made  the  evil  worse  by  vexing 
the  soul  of  the  just  man  ;  therefore  did  He  by  His  own  gracious 
interposition  prepare  for  the  words  of  Job  a  far  better  end  than 
that  of  ch.  xxxi.  40 — "  The  words  of  Job  are  ended."  There- 
fore did  He  look  into  his  heart,  instead  of  severely  visiting  upon 
him  "  the  speeches  of  a  desperate  man  into  the  wind "  (ch.  vi. 
26)  ;  therefore  did  tie  hold  valid  Job's  patience,  and,  in  order 
to  this,  brino;  in  at  the  riirht  time  the  end  of  all  his  sufferino;. 
But  thus  does  the  Lord  deal  with  us  all,  according  to  our 
ability  and  the  measm'e  of  grace  received.  Thus,  Job's  most 
instructive  example  should  teach  us  ever  to  look  up  from  the 
enduring  man  to  the  merciful  God  ;  we  should  learn  that  the 
patience  of  no  man  is  perfect  in  itself,  or  of  any  merit ;  that 
all  who  have  endui'ed  would  have  been  put  to  shame  if  the 
Lord  had  pushed  the  test  further ;  that  this,  however,  is  not 
His  pleasure,  but  that  His  mercy  brings  in  the  good  end,  and 
utters  the  pitiful  judgment. 


JAMES  V.  12.  461 

Here  ^ye  cannot  but  think  of  Him,  whom  St  James  indeed 
does  not  name,  meaning  probably  that  his  very  silence  should 
suggest  to  their  minds  what  to  all  Christians  was  self-under- 
stood. We  look  up  to  our  merciful  and  sympathising  High 
Priest,  who  Himself  was  in  His  infirmity  suffering  and  tempted, 
who  ever  imparts  to  us  in  om*  sufferings  the  light,  and  power, 
and  consolation  of  His  grace,  that  we  may  suffer  with  Himself. 
He  who  holds  fast  this  great  truth  in  faith,  may  count  himself 
blessed  in  his  faith,  even  before  the  glorious  end.  Ye  sufferers, 
take  to  your  hearts  this  consolation  !  and  ye  who  are  for  the 
present  spared,  learn  better  and  more  mercifully  to  comfort 
the  afflicted  than  the  friends  of  Job  !  But  arm  yourselves  with 
these  good  examples,  that  you  may  not  be  faint  and  easily  ter- 
rified, Avhen  your  troubles  come. 


XXIX. 

SWEAR  NOT  ;   PURIFY  TOUR  SPEECH. 

(Ch.  V.  12.) 

But  above  all  things,  my  brethren,  swear  not,  neither  by  heaven,  neither 
by  the  earth,  neither  by  any  other  oath ;  but  let  your  yea  be  yea,  and 
your  nay,  nay  ;  lest  ye  fall  into  condemnation. 

In  writing  letters,  we  naturally,  when  reaching  the  end,  be- 
think ourselves  of  anything  necessary,  or  that  might  be  useful, 
which  must  be  added  :  so  St  Paul  does  in  his  Epistles ;  and 
the  twelfth  verse  of  this  last  chapter  seems  to  be  an  example  in 
St  James  of  the  same  thing.  For  how  else  could  he  have  here 
lighted  on  the  forbidden  svjearing,  so  singularly  inserting  this 
warning  between  the  examples  of  patience  and  the  power  of 
jyrai/er  ?  The  denunciation  of  the  sins  of  the  tongue  had  been 
a  prominent  subject  in  the  earlier  part  of  the  Epistle :  but  he 
could  not  individually  particularise  all  that  the  untamed  tongue 
is  too  swift  to  speak.  Nor  could  that  have  been  his  design ; 
but  one  thing  occurs  to  him  now  which  he  would  not  leave 
unmentioned,  and  therefore  supplements  here.  But  why  here? 
We  may  thus  exliibit  the  connection  of  his  thoughts :  Job's 


4G2  SWEAR  NOT  ;    PURIFY  YOUR  SPEECH. 

history,  which  he  Jiad  just  livingly  set  before  them,  reminds 
him  of  Job's  sins  with  his  tongue,  of- his  gloiying,  his  murmur- 
ing, his  contention  with  God,  the  cursing  of  his  day.  He 
might  have  continued — Murmur  not,  my  brethren !  But  he 
will  not  say  this  to  the  dishonour  of  Job ;  for,  the  final  judg- 
ment of  the  Pitiful  One  had  mercifully  overlooked  the  impa- 
tience of  Job,  and  even  approved  and  sealed  the  glory  of  his 
patience.  But  St  James  takes  occasion  lightly  to  remind  them, 
in  this  place,  of  that  which  the  Lord  had  made  very  prominent 
in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount — so  constantly  referred  to  through- 
out this  Epistle — to  wit,  of  the  inconsiderate  swearing,  with 
all  kinds  of  imitations  of  the  sacred  oath,  which  was  so  deeply 
rooted  in  the  Jewish  custom.  This  is  a  matter  which  he  feels 
bound  to  enforce  upon  his  brethren,  and  he  does  so  almost  in 
the  same  words  as  those  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount :  "  Once 
more  to  speak,  in  connection  with  Job,  of  the  restraint  of  the 
tongue — brethren,  before  all  other  things  which  I  have  written 
on  this  subject,  forget  not  our  Lord's  rigid  and  absolute  word 
against  swearing  !"  Thus  we  see  how  naturally,  both  for  the 
writer  and  the  then  readers  of  this  Epistle,  this  verse  occurs  in 
this  place.  But  it  is  to  us  also  an  important  repetition  of  a  word 
of  our  Lord,  Mdiich  we  always  need  rightly  to  hear ;  that  is,  first 
to  understand  it  aright,  and  then  to  honour  it  by  earnest  obe- 
dience. 

This  passage  has  two  topics  in  it:  the  specific  warning 
against  swearing ;  and  the  general  exhortation  to  pure,  simple, 
and  consistent  words  in  discourse,  free  from  all  superfluity. 

Swear  not !  How  is  this  to  be  rightly  understood  ?  Are 
we  to  avoid,  with  the  Mcnnonites  and  Quakers,  every  kind  of 
oath  ?  St  James  seems  indeed  to  strengthen  even  the  word  of 
Jesus  against  them,  when  he  says — Nor  with  any  other  oath  ! 
No,  my  brethren,  neither  our  Lord  there  nor  His  servant  here 
speaks  unconditionally  against  that  true  and  holy  oath  by  God, 
which  the  law  not  abolished  by  gi'ace  commands,  which  is  un- 
avoidable on  account  of  evil,  and  which  is  justified  by  most 
decisive  examples  throughout  the  whole  of  the  Scriptures. 
Neither  Jesus  nor  James  could  say — what  therefore  is  not  said 
— Ye  shall  swear  neither  by  God  Himself  nor  by  any  creature ! 
For  how  could  He,  who  came  not  to  abolish  the  law,  directly 
contradict  that  law  ?     But  the  law,  in  that  most  important  pas- 


JAMES  V.  12.  tbd 

sage  concerning  the  worsliip  of  God  alone,  with  wliicli  Jesus 
confronted  Satan,  says  expressly — Thou  shalt  fear  the  Lord  thy 
God,  and  serve  Him,  and  stoear  hy  Ilis  name  (Deut.  vi.  13). 
The  commandment  from  Sinai  forbids  us  not  to  take  the  name 
of  God  into  oiu'  lips  holily  and  usefully  ;  every  right  utterance 
of  His  name  is  a  confession  of  the  heart's  allegiance  to  the 
true  God.  And  what  is  the  oath,  in  its  right  place,  other  than 
a  confession  and  testimony  that  we  think  of  God  adoringly,  and 
therefore  and  therein  speak  the  truth  ?  Concerning  the  wicked 
neighbours  of  Israel  we  read  the  Lord's  word  by  the  prophets 

—  "And  it  shall  come  to  pass,  if  they  will  diligently  learn  the 
way  of  My  people,  to  swear  by  My  name,  The  Lord  liveth ; 
as  they  taught  ^ly  people  to  swear  by  Baal ;  then  shall  they 
build  in  the  midst  of  IMy  people"  (Jer.  xii.  16).  The  Lord 
Himself  predicts  a  swearing  which  cannot  be  sin,  when  it  is 
said — "  They  shall  no  more  say.  The  Lord  liveth,  which  brought 
up  the  children  of  Israel  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt ;  but.  The 
Lord  liveth,  which  brought  up  and  which  led  the  seed  of  Israel 
out  of  all  the  countries  whither  they  had  been  driven!"  (Jer. 
xxiii.  7,  8).     Yea,  Isaiah  prophesies  of  the  millennial  Idngdom 

—  "  That  he  who  blesseth  himself  in  ihe  earth  shall  bless  himself 
in  the  God  of  truth  (properly,  the  God  A  men) ;  and  he  that 
sweareth  in  the  earth  shall  swear  by  the  God  of  truth,  the  God 
AmerU^  (Is.  xv.  16). 

The  first  word  with  which  Elijah,  the  man  of  God,  emerged 
from  his  obscurity,  Avas  a  solemn  sacred  oath — As  the  Lord  God 
of  Israel  liveth,  before  whom  I  stand,  there  shall  be  neither  dew 
nor  rain  these  years  !  (1  Kings  xvii.  1).  Against  the  false  pro- 
j)hets  Micaiah  affirmed — As  the  Lord  liveth,  what  the  Lord 
saith  unto  me,  that  will  I  speak !  (1  Kings  xxii.  14).  So  the 
Prophets  oftentimes  swear ;  and  thus  we  find  in  the  Epistles  of 
the  Apostles  the  confirming  oath ;  and  so  in  the  Revelation 
of  St  John  (ch.  X.  6)  an  angel  swears  by  Him  that  livetli  for 
ever  and  ever  !  And  why  speak  we  of  Prophets,  Apostles,  and 
Angels?  God  Himself,  in  accommodating  condescension  to 
weak  man,  sweareth  by  His  own  name ;  and  twenty-three  times 
in  the  Old  Testament  we  hear  the  solemn  "  ^s  /  live,  saith  the 
Lord  !"  In  reality,  it  is  only  the  same  when,  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment, the  Son,  the  Word  of  God  to  the  world,  the  Faithful 
'Witness,  in  whose  mouth  every  word  is  true  because  He  speaks 


464  SWEAR  NOT  ;    rURIFY  YOUR  SPEECH. 

it,  nevertheless  swearetli  by  Himself — As  I sjjeak  to  you!  For 
that  is  the  meaning  of  His  "  Verily,  Verily,  or,  Amen,  Amen, 
I  say  unto  you. 

Hence  we  understand  that  the  oath  in  itself  cannot  possibly 
be  sin,  as  the  Apostle  says — Men  verily  swear  by  the  greater, 
and  an  oath  for  confirmation  is  to  them  the  end  of  all  strife 
(Heb.  vi.  16).  Before  a  tribunal,  to  obviate  strife  without  end, 
and  to  ascertain  the  truth  before  the  face  of  God,  an  oath  is 
lawful  and  right.  Thus  Christ,  in  submission  to  the  ordinance 
of  God,  and  in  the  service  of  the  world,  took  a  judicial  oath 
before  the  authorities.  For  it  was  the  custom  in  Israel  that  the 
judge  should  speak  as  the  high  priest  did — /  adjure  thee  by  the 
living  God :  the  answer  was  valid  as  the  acceptance  and  taking 
of  the  required  oath.  We  also  may  unsinfully  swear  when  we 
are  adjured  before  a  judgment-seat ;  that  is  not  only  no  sin,  it 
is  our  bounden  duty  to  God  and  man.  It  is  an  obedient  testi- 
mony that  we  stand  in  judgment  as  in  the  presence  of  God, 
whose  name  we  invoke  and  reverence ;  and  it  is  a  service  of  love 
to  oiu'  neighbour,  to  do  the  right.  True,  this  swearing  in  the  pre- 
sent world  cometh  of  evil !  But  we  must  with  Christ  be  subject 
to  the  law,  in  love,  for  the  sake  of  the  evil. 

All  this  being  established,  what  hind  of  swearing  is  it  of 
which  the  Lord  and  His  servant  speak — Ye  shall  not  swear  at 
all !  We  are  accustomed  to  teach  our  children  in  the  Catechism 
that  swearing  is  permitted  before  a  tribunal,  forbidden  in  com- 
mon life.  Yet  this  does  not  hit  the  point,  and  such  a  doctrine 
is  false.  Are  then  the  oaths,  which  occur  in  Scripture,  of 
Prophets,  Apostles,  and  other  holy  men,  simply  judicial  oaths  ? 
As  before  the  tribunal  men  may  require  and  may  take  solemn 
oaths  for  very  trifling  matters,  so  even  in  "  common  life"  it  may 
sometimes  be  very  seasonably  said  with  solemnity —  True  as  the 
Lord  liveth  I  calling  Him  to  witness.  Against  such  a  word  St 
James  does  not  protest,  any  more  than  against  that  which  he 
prescribes — //  the  Lord  ivill !  It  is  a  very  perverse  exposition 
to  say  that  St  James  speaks  altogether  of  the  judicial  oath  of 
the  oppressed  before  the  judgment-seat ;  for  men  do  not  swear 
before  the  judgment-seat  by  heaven  or  by  earth.  Nor  does  St 
James  mean — Rather  go  not  to  law  !  for  that  is  quite  a  different 
matter,  and  the  advice  would  not  have  been  expressed  by 
Swear  not !     It  is  self-understood  that  for  a  brother  to  e;o  to 


JAiVIES  V.  12.  4G5 

law  with  a  brother  is  a  great  evil.  It  is  unimaginable  that  a 
case  should  occur  in  which  both  parties,  between  whom  an  oath 
has  become  necessary,  are  true  Christians  and  act  as  such ; 
where  there  must  be  swearing,  sin  must  exist  on  account  of 
which  it  becomes  necessary.  The  Christian  submits  to  the  sad 
necessity  when  it  becomes  his  duty  to  assert  important  right ;  in 
matters  of  less  moment  he  would  rather  recede,  and  not  swear ; 
scarcely  even  in  the  extremest  need  would  he  be  a  party  to  the 
requirement  of  an  oath,  lest  he  should  lead  his  neighbour  into 
temptation.  Thus  e^en  before  the  judgment  the  warning  holds 
good — Swear  not !  But  even  in  ordinary  life  the  Spirit  of  the 
Lord  may  urge  us  to  affirm  a  matter  with  sacred  solemnity  in 
the  name  of  the  Lord.  .  On  the  other  hand,  and  because  the 
oath  is  so  sacred,  there  is  a  prohibition  of  all  presumptuous, 
trifling,  useless  imitation  and  desecration  of  the  oath.  The  only 
true  oath  is  the  oath  by  God  ;  and  that  is  lawful  and  right  only 
as  far  as  we  most  humbly  place  ourselves  under  the  authority  of 
God  ;  every  other  kind  of  swearing  is  no  more  than  blasphemous 
presumption.  The  most  perfect  formula  of  swearing  is  that  of 
2  Cor.  i.  23 — I  call  God  to  witness  on  my  soul!  Obviously, 
that  involves  the  idea  of  punishment  for  untruth  ;  but  if  we  as 
it  were  ourselves  dictate  the  punishment,  or  place  our  own  sal- 
vation in  pledge,  or  denounce  upon  ourselves  damnation  if  we 
lie — then  we  invade  the  prerogative  of  God,  who  alone  can 
save  and  condemn,  whether  the  oath  be  true  or  perjui'ed.  It 
were  much  to  be  wished  that  our  formula  "  So  help  me  God" 
could  be  changed  for  one  more  appropriate  ;  for  it  is  open  to 
misundei'standing,  as  if  without  He  would  not  help.  The 
phrase  in  the  Old  Testament — "  The  Lord  do  thus  or  thus 
unto  me" — was  conceded  to  infirmity  ;  it  is  not  for  us  to  imi- 
tate it. 

Generally,  we  already  find  in  the  Holy  Scripture  of  the  Old 
Testament  the  evident  transition  from  sacred  sweai'ing  to  the 
Jewish  custom,  which  iiTeverently  and  thoughtlessly  used  it. 
Much  too  often  and  too  quickly  say  the  people — As  the  Lord 
liveth  !  whence  naturally  springs  much  sinful  desecration  of  the 
phrase.  Let  us  once  more  think  of  Job  !  How  presumptuously 
and  sinfully  did  he  swear,  when  he  cried  in  heat — "  As  God 
liveth,  wdio  hath  taken  away  my  judgment ;  and  the  Almighty, 
who  hath  vexed  my  soul ; — my  lips  shall  not  speak  wickedness! 

2g 


46G  SWEAR  NOT  ;   PURIFY  YOUR  SPEECH. 

Till  I  die  I  will  not  remove  mine  integrity  from  me !  My 
heart  shall  not  reproach  me  so  long  as  I  live !"  (Job  xxvii.  2-6). 
When  David  had  taken  Saul's  spear  and  cruse  of  water,  and 
cried  half  in  mockery  to  Ahner — As  the  Lord  liveth,  ye  are 
worthy  to  die,  because  ye  have  not  kept  your  master  !  (1  Sam. 
xxvi.  16) — he  certainly  should  have  left  the  swearing  out. 
When  he  sealed  the  doom,  in  his  own  mind,  of  the  guilty  man 
of  Nathan's  story — As  the  Lord  liveth,  the  man  is  a  son  of 
death!  while  he  was  himself  the  man  (2  Sam.  xii.  5,  7) — he 
certainly  was  not  In  the  right  state  to  swear,  but  sealed  his  own 
doom,  and  must  have  died,  if  the  Lord  had  not  had  mercy. 
When  Saul,  on  occasion  of  the  sin  in  the  matter  of  the  honey, 
said — As  the  Lord  liveth,  if  it  were  my  son  Jonathan,  he  should 
die !  and  once  more — God  do  so  to  me  and  more  also,  thou 
shalt  die  the  death !  the  people  cried  on  their  part — As  the 
Lord  liveth,  not  a  hair  of  his  head  shall  be  touched  !  And  thus 
there  was  oath  against  oath,  as  so  frequently  happens  ;  and  all 
this  mischief  sprang  from  the  impetuous  word  of  Saul — Cursed 
be  he  that  eateth  anything !  (1  Sam.  xiv.  24,  39,  44,  45).  How 
fearful  sounds  this  idle  desecration  of  the  name  of  God,  when 
the  same  Saul,  rejected  of  God,  swore  by  the  Lord  to  the  witch 
— As  tlie  Lord  liveth,  there  shall  no  punishment  happen  to  thee 
in  this  thing!  (1  Sam.  xxviii.  10).  Scarcely  different  frcim 
this  is  Gehazi's  oath,,  who  had  learned  from  his  master  holy 
language,  which  he  profanely  perverted — As  the  Lord  liveth,  I 
will  run  after  Naaman,  and  take  something  of  him  !  (2  Kings 
V.  29). 

When  afterwards  the  pharisaic  Jews  thought  of  the  com- 
mandment— Thou  shalt  not  take  the  name  of  the  Lord  thy 
God  in  vain !  they  did  with  It  as  Avith  everything  else ;  thc}' 
adhered  to  the  mere  letter,  and  carefully  avoided  using  the 
name  of  God  In  their  oaths.  But  only  the  worse  was  their 
common  custom  :  their  vain  swearing  by  heaven,  hy  earth,  hy 
their  own  heads  (as  in  the  Old  Testament,  by  the  soul),  by  the 
Temple  and  its  gold,  the  altar  and  its  offerings,  and  so  forth. 
It  was  this  folly — which,  moreover,  made  perverse  distinctions 
— that  the  Lord  condemned,  showing  them  that  swearing  by 
anything  out  of  God  either  had  no  meaning,  or  men  thereby 
thought  of  God,  in  whose  power  all  things  are.  The  heaven  Is 
His  throne ;  the  earth  His  footstool ;  our  heads  and  our  lives 


JAMES  V.  12.  467 

are  no  more  in  our  power  than  the  most  insignificant  hair !  St 
James  means  no  other  here  ;  and  when  he  says  in  addition — 
Nor  hy  any  other  oath,  it  means — Swear  not  with  any  similar 
oath,  which,  deahng  with  the  name  of  God,  presumes  to  take 
anything  as  a  pledge  of  confirmation. 

Do  ice  need  no  longer  all  these  warnings  ?  Well  we  know 
that  the  ungodly  in  Christendom  take  profane  oaths,  like  Saul 
and  Gehazi.  Well  also  we  know  that,  like  the  Jews  of  former 
times,  vain  triflers  substitute  other  things  for  the  name  of  God, 
and  think  that  this  kind  of  swearing  is  only  an  innocent  kind 
of  speech.  O  that  such  swearing  were  not  found  among 
Christians,  who  would  fain  be  the  children  of  God !  O  that 
many  of  them  were  more  zealous  in  unlearning  the  habit  of 
thoughtlessly  using,  on  the  most  trivial  occasions,  the  formulas 
of  sacred  adjm'ation!  What  can  be  more  blasphemously  pre- 
sumptuous than  for  poor  sinful  creatures  to  arrogate  to  them- 
selves the  supreme  prerogative  of  the  ISIost  High,  that  of  swear- 
ing by  Himself,  and  to  imitate  the  Divine  Majesty  by  their  As 
1  live  !  But  this  is  the  real  meaning  of  By  my  soul !  It  is  no 
excuse  that  it  is  foimd  in  the  Old  Testament ;  for  there  the  ex- 
pression, often  at  least,  occurs  in  a  triie  and  proper  sense ;  as 
even  the  tmgodly  king  Zedekiah  uttered  it  to  Jeremiah — As  the 
Lord  liveth,  that  made  us  this  soul  (Jer.  xxxviii.  16)  ;  and  as 
we  find  it  in  full  sometimes — As  the  Lord  liveth,  and  as  my  or 
thy  soul  liveth !  Brethren,  be  on  your  guaixl  against  all  such 
forms  of  customary  speech  as  must  be  included  in  the  "  swear- 
ing" which  is  forbidden.  Be  not  conformed  to  this  world! 
Yield  all  your  members  to  the  service  of  God  in  righteousness, 
and  your  tongues  to  the  pure  service  of  truth  ! 

Ye  should  sanctify  and  keep  pure  your  discourse  generally ; 
cleanse  it  from  all  superfluity  and  aftergi'owth  of  sin,  of  idle 
and  useless  conversation.  This  is  the  general  groimd  on  which 
rests  the  prohibition  of  vain  swearing.  But  let  your  icord  he  yea, 
if  it  he  yea;  nay,  if  it  he  nay :  This  is  Luther's  not  incorrect 
paraphrase  of  what  St  James  gives  literally  according  to 
Christ's  o'wn  saying — But  let  your  yea  he  yea,  your  nay,  nay. 
We  know  that  the  Lord  Himself  added —  \f  hatsoever  is  more  than 
this  Cometh  of  evil.  But  this  does  not  at  once  mean  that  eveiy 
word  beyond  a  simple  affirmative  or  negation  is  sin  !  Indeed, 
if  there  were  no  sin,  no  lie,  no  mistnist,  in  the  world,  the  sim- 


468  SWEAR  NOT  :   PURIFY  YOUR  SPEECH. 

plest  utterances  woiild  suffice.  But  on  account  of  evil  many 
words  have  become  necessary  for  attestation  of  the  truth.  O 
how  many  words  does  the  Spirit  of  God  in  Scripture  use  to 
testify  and  affirm  to  us  what  we  will  not  believe,  accept,  and 
learn  !  Consequently,  we  also  mast,  in  our  sacred  office  for  the 
good  of  men,  seek  strength  and  emphasis  of  expression  ;  our 
love  must  not  be  ashamed  to  confront  evil  with  much  more  than 
plain  yea  and  nay.  On  the  day  of  Pentecost,  St  Peter  testified 
and  exhorted  with  many  other  words — Save  yourselves  from  this 
untoward  generation  !  (Acts  ii.  40).  St  Paul  in  Troas  con- 
tinued his  discourse  till  midnight,  so  that  Eutychus  fell  into  a 
deep  sleep  while  he  was  long  preaching  (Acts  xx.  7,  9).  And 
what  fulness  of  words  out  of  a  full  heart  and  urgent  zeal  do  we 
find  sometimes  in  his  Epistles  !  And  so  must  preachers,  teachers, 
and  parents,  not  shrink  from  repeating  their  yea  and  nay  with 
many  words,  when  necessity  requires. 

But  this  is  what  St  James  would  say,  as  he  changes  the  word 
of  Christ  a  little  in  his  free  spirit,  though  without  changing  its 
meaning: — Assuredly  we  should  utter  all  in  pm'e  truth,  and 
with  fitting  earnestness  of  truth ;  no  absolutely  useless  word 
should  proceed  out  of  our  mouth  ;  never  should  we  heap  up 
words  on  account  of  our  own  uncertainty,  or  with  lying,  in  order 
to  affirm  anything  in  a  manner  similar  to  swearing.  As  far  as 
in  us  lies,  our  speech  should  be  in  the  purest  simplicity,  as  be- 
cometh  the  new  nature,  and  those  who  live  in  an  element  of 
truth.  And  this  point  touches  us  more  closely,  brethren,  than 
the  previous  denunciation  of  swearing !  How  much  are  we 
wanting  in  the  sanctification  of  our  discourse !  St  James' 
second  word  would  open  to  us  a  sermon  of  itself ;  but  we  must 
briefly  unfold  it,  and  mark  that  our  words  should  be  sincere, 
true,  simple,  and^irm.  Four  great  attributes  of  the  words  which 
we  speak ! 

Before  all  things  our  lips  should  utter  Yea  or  Nay,  when  the 
yea  or  nay  is  in  the  heai't ;  that  is,  we  should  sincerely  speak  as 
we  mean.  A  Christian  should  never  give  up  his  glorying  that 
he  speaks  the  truth  from  his  heart ;  it  should  never  be  needful 
to  him  to  add  strong  affirmations  because  on.  other  occasions  he 
speaks  less  than  the  truth  : — only  on  account  of  undeserved  dis- 
trust does  he  humble  himself,  as  if  he  might  be  thought  to  lie. 
St  Paul  affirms — I  say  the  truth  in  Christ,  I  lie  not  (Rom. 


JAMES  V.  12.  469 

ix.  1)  ;  he  does  not  mean  "  Tliis  time  I  lie  not,"  but  that  he 
always  speaks  the  truth.  Therefore  our  lips  should  utter  Yea 
or  Nay  only  when  the  ^natter  is  yea  or  nay  ;  that  is,  our  speech 
should  be  truej  a  testimony  to  be  depended  upon.  If  it  is  impos- 
sible always  to  attain  this,  because  we  may  be  mistaken,  we 
should  at  least  to  the  best  of  our  ability  be  conscientious  iii 
our  convictions.  That  which  we  do  not  certainly  know,  we 
should  not  so  certainly  testify :  when  we  know  not  the  yea  or 
nay  of  the  matter,  we  should  qualify  oiu'  utterance. 

But  the  word  of  Christ  and  St  James  means  still  more — 
We  should  say  Yea  or  Nay,  where  yea  or  nay  is  the  fact,  or  at 
least  in  our  heart's  thought  concerning  it ;  that  is,  indeed, 
not  merely  these  two  w^ords,  yet  without  useless  superfluity  of 
w^oi'ds  in  addition.  Consequently,  as  much  as  in  us  lies,  if  ne- 
cessity do  not  constrain,  we  should  use  a  simjyle,  short,  striking 
character  of  discourse.  How  much  force  and  emphasis  is  thrown 
away  among  us  in  the  many  words  which  we  heap  up  to  supply 
the  place  of  this  !  We  all  use  too  many  words,  without  neces- 
sity and  to  om-  hurt.  Simple  words  are  forcible ;  the  command 
or  prohibition  is  more  likely  to  be  heard  if  expressed  in  deci- 
sive and  firm  words.  How  often  does  the  father,  still  oftener 
the  mother,  among  you  complain — I  have  told  my  child  many 
times  over,  but  he  will  not  hear !  But  it  is  your  fault,  because 
you  are  accustomed  to  speak  many  times  over ;  learn  to  speak 
once  with  effect.  The  soldiers  of  the  centurion  at  Capernaum 
went  or  came  because  they  heard  the  plain  word  of  command — 
Go !  Come !  Do  this  !  (Matt.  viii.  9).  So  accustom  youi'selves 
to  speak  firmly  and  decisively.  And  this  leads,  finally,  to  the 
last  point — Abide  by  your  yea  or  nay,  when  once  it  has  been 
spoken  ;  let  your  speech  be  consistent  and  firm,  not  vacillating 
— first  yea,  then  nay,  in  word  or  deed.  Not  that  we  would  ap- 
prove of  or  recommend  that  firmness  of  selfishness  which  knows 
only — What  I  have  said,  I  have  said !  If  your  first  yea  or 
nay  was  precipitate,  and  if  it  would  be  sin  to  hold  to  it,  then 
no  sinful  oath  ought  to  bind  us ;  otherwise  Herod  would  have 
been  obliged  to  slay  John  the  Baptist  for  his  oath's  sake.  But 
the  great  point  is  to  speak  nothing  but  what  may  be  maintained, 
with  reservation  of  circumstances  which  are  in  the  power  of 
God  alone.  So  St  Paul  excuses  himself,  that  God's  own  hind- 
rance prevented  him  from  keeping  his  promise  to  the  Corin- 


470  PEAYING  AND  SINGING. 

tliians  :  lie  had  fully  intended  to  keep  it,  and  says — ^Tlie  tilings 
that  I  purpose,  do  I  purpose  according  to  the  flesh,  that  with 
me  there  should  be  yea,  yea,  and  nay,  nay,  at  once  ?  (2  Cor. 
i.  17). 

Brethren,  exercise  yourselves  diligently,  through  the  Divine 
grace,  in  the  sanctification  of  your  words  in  the  truth — that  ye 
fall  not  into  hypocrisy  I  So  Luther  read  the  text,  and  it  gives 
a  good  sense — That  ye  do  not,  as  the  children  of  God,  make 
yourselves  partakers  in  the  guilt  of  the  hypocrisy,  lying,  insin- 
cerity, and  falsity,  from  which  in  the  world  springs  the  multi- 
tude of  unchecked  words.  But  St  James  probably  wrote — 
That  ye  may  not  fall  into  condemnation ;  that  ye  may  not  be- 
fore God  and  man  be  responsible  for  unconsidered  and  idle 
words. 


XXX. 

PitAYING  AND  SINGING. 

(Ch.  V.  13.) 

Is  any  among  you  afficted  ?  let  him  pray.     Is  any  merry  ?  let  him  sing 

psalms. 

The  beautiful  and  pregnant  saying  with  which  St  James 
continues,  speaks  further  of  the  right  use  of  the  tongue ;  yet  he 
goes  back  at  once  to  the  heart,  from  the  ground  of  which,  as 
before  men,  so  also  before  God,  our  speech  should  come  in  its 
sincerity  and  simplicity,  according  to  the  spirit  of  our  mind. 
We  say  very  properly  that  praying  is  the  best  and  holiest  use 
of  our  tongvie ;  therefore  St  James  opposes  to  its  shameful 
misuse  in  vain  swearing  the  sincere  words  of  the  heart.  We 
are  reminded  of  Luther's  Catechism — that  we  should  not  "  take 
the  name  of  God  without  pm^pose,  but  call  upon  it  in  all  our 
need,  pray  to  it,  worship  it,  and  thank  it."  The  whole  clause 
gives  us  an  answer  to  the  question  which  might  arise,  why  St 
James  attributes  prayer  only  to  those  who  are  ajflicted.  We 
observe,  that  he  means  especially  the  prayer  of  supplication,  to 
which  om-  word  petition  strictly  corresponds.    But  the  singing  of 


JAilES  V.  13.  471 

psalms  is  also  prayer.  It  is  even  tlie  loftiest,  noblest  prayer,  in 
which  we,  needy  and  therefore  selfish  mortals,  become  like  the 
angels,  who  have  nothing  to  pray  for  on  their  own  behalf,  but 
praise  God  without  intermission.  Yea,  should  not  and  ought 
not  every  petition  to  pass  over  into  thanksgiving,  in  its  confident 
and  joyful  Amen '^  Is  any  merry?  let  liim  sing  psalms  : — let 
him  not  think  that  he  has  nothing  to  say  to  God  because  no- 
thing now  oppresses  him,  and  he  lacks  nothing — as  if  God  was 
a  God  only  for  times  of  need! 

Fui'ther,  let  us  very  carefully  look  at  the  words,  that  we 
may  rightly  understand  them,  and  not  too  literally  press  their 
letter.  We  may  be  afflicted  without  any  external  or  especial 
distress,  only  through  trial  and  exercise  of  heart ;  but  we  ought 
to  be  merry,  or  of  good  courage,  even  in  the  midst  of  trial,  and 
count  it  pure  joy  to  go  through  the  discipline  which  our  patience 
Avillingly  accepts — without  praying  against  it,  or  even  at  first 
finding  it  needful  to  pray  for  consolation  and  strength.  Finally, 
we  should  always  become  joyful  and  of  merry  heart  before  God, 
even  if  we  are  not  yet  so;  we  should  always  continue  and  end 
with  praise  and  thanksgiving  what  began  with  supplication 
and  petition.  And  why  not  in  some  sense  begin  with  it  ? 
Again,  if  our  merry  spirit  does  not  spring  from  faith,  if  our  peace 
and  joy  of  heart  is  not  sound  and  pure  before  God,  then  there 
would  be  far  more  need  to  pray  against  temptation,  to  supplicate 
for  the  spiritual  gifts  in  which  we  are  wanting.  We  see  that 
St  James  does. not  forbid  our  inverting  the  words:  If  any 
man  suffer,  let  him  teach  and  encourage  himself  by  songs  of 
praise  and  thankfulness,  that  he  may  strengthen  or  obtain  a 
good  courage  in  trial.  Is  any  meriy  ?  let  him  be  very  careful 
to  be  sure  that  his  joy  is  sound,  and  pray  to  be  defended  from 
sinful  joy.  For  in  joy  and  sorrow  our  heart  and  mouth  should 
be  always  directed  only  to  God;  even  the  merry  singing  of  the 
joyous  should  be  a  singing  of  psalms,  that  is,  a  praying.  This 
is  the  proper  meaning  of  this  beautiful  sapng,  and  makes  it 
very-  like  another — Pray  without  ceasing !  (1  Thess.  v.  17). 

But,  inasmuch  as  the  pra}*ing  of  the  aflBicted  is  more  familiar 
to  us,  and  more  frequently  urged,  let  us  turn  our  consideration 
especially  now  to  the  following  clause  concerning  the  psalm- 
singing  of  the  merry.  This  is  really  the  main  thing  which  St 
James  intends  ;  and  he  only  presupposes  the  former,  or  lays  it 


472  TKAYING  AND  SINGING. 

as  a  founfh'.tion,  in  order  to  build  upon  it  the  word — But  let 
not  him  who  is  not  afflicted  forget  to  speak  to  God  in  his  heart. 
We  shall  hear  further  presently  about  the  praying  of  the  man 
in  affliction  ;  let  us  therefore  dwell  now  only  upon  the  text — 7s 
any  merry  ?  let  him  siiig  psalms. 

In  the  original  this  last  is  only  a  single  word,  which  we  can- 
not reproduce — Let  him  psalm,  or  praise,  that  is,  his  God.  But, 
in  order  that  we  may  thoroughly  deal  with  this  great  saying, 
let  us  divide  the  word  according  to  our  translation,  and  ask  first 
whether  it  might  be  said  generally — Is  any  merry  ?  let  him 
sing  !  We  answer.  Assuredly  ;  for  the  singing  is  necessarily  in- 
cluded and  recognised  in  the  praise  of  psalms.  That  the  joyful 
should  sing,  is  as  natural  as  that  the  afflicted  should  pray — rather, 
more  natural.  Song  as  the  expression  of  cheerfulness  is  some- 
thing universal  in  human  nature ;  there  were  always,  both  in 
Israel  and  among  all  other  nations,  songs  of  joy.  Hence  it  is 
constantly  mentioned  in  the  prophets,  by  whom  joyous  singing 
is  used  as  a  frequent  figure,  even  as  they  threaten  that  God 
will  take  away  the  song  of  the  bridegroom  and  the  bride,  and 
so  forth.  The  singing  of  men  is  in  itself  good  and  noble.  The 
same  God  who  furnished  the  birds  of  heaven  with  the  notes 
wherein  they  unconsciously  praise  their  Creator,  gave  to  man 
the  power  to  sing.  We  all  know  how  highly  Luther,  for 
example,  estimated  the  gift  and  the  art  of  song.  Let  him  to 
whom  it  is  granted,  rejoice  therein  ;  let  him  who  lacks  it  seek 
if  jDossibie  to  excite  it,  for  it  is  a  good  gift  of  the  Creator  gene- 
rally belonging  to  our  human  nature.  Let  our  children  learn 
to  sing  in  the  schools,  even  as  they  learn  to  read.  Our  fathers 
sang  more  in  all  the  affairs  of  life  than  we  do  ;  oiir  times  are  in 
this  respect  less  fresh,  and  artless,  and  joyous.  Thei'e  are  many 
among  us  wlio  never  sing  except  when  adding  their  voices  to  the 
voice  of  the  Church — and  therefore  they  sing  so  badly  there. 
Not  that  a  harsh  song  from  a  good  heart  is  unacceptable  to  ■ 
God ;  but  He  should  have  our  best.  And  as  David  in  his  day 
took  care  that  there  should  be  practised  singers  for  the  sanc- 
tuary, we  also  should  make  provision  for  the  Church's  service  of 
song,  that  God  may  have  in  all  respects  a  perfect  offering.  How 
gracious  and  lovely  is  the  congregation,  singing  with  the  heart 
acceptable  songs  ! 

We  will  not,  however,  hasten  on  to  this  at  once,  but  take  one 


JAMES  V.  13.  473 

sentence  by  its  clauses.  Is  any  merry  ?  let  liim  sing — but  what  ? 
All,  this  gives  us  occasion  to  bring  to  mind  much  that  is  unpro- 
fitable !  How  miserably  is  noble  music  desecrated  in  the  service 
of  sin,  so  that  the  wood,  or  the  metal,  or  the  strings,  might  well 
mourn  as  creatiures  of  God  over  their  misuse !  And  how  is 
glorious  music  perverted  and  desecrated  upon  the  tongue  of 
man,  when  it  is  prostituted  to  filthy  songs  1  The  dancing  in  old 
times  around  the  golden  calf  was  an  abomination  before  God, 
and  so  is  much  that  is  like  it  among  His  people  now.  There 
are  songs  enough  provided  for  the  merry,  which  must  be  classed 
at  least  among  those  foolish  jestings  which  in  the  saints  so  un- 
Avorthily  take  the  place  of  thanksgiving  (Eph.  v.  4).  Of  them 
Solomon's  word  holds  good — It  is  better  to  hear  the  rebuke  of 
the  wise,  than  for  a  man  even  to  hear  the  song  of  fools  (Eccles. 
vii.  5).  And  there  are  impure  and  shameful  songs  heard  in  our 
streets,  by  which  a  wicked  spirit,  roaring  out  of  the  inflamed 
throats  of  the  debauched,  pollutes  even  the  days  of  the  Lord  in 
Christian  communities  !  How  ought  such  singers  to  be  abashed 
and  confounded,  when  they  attempt  to  open  the  same  lips  in 
sacred  songs  before  God !  Christians,  be  on  your  guard  con- 
tinually against  them,  and  take  care  to  check  in  your  children 
the  faintest  complacency  in  them.  Further,  there  are  so-called 
decent  and  reputable  songs  which  express  worldly  joy  in,  it  may 
be,  a  veiy  refined  manner,  though  they  are  altogether  impure, 
unspiritual,  contrary  to  God,  and  without  Christ :  they  either 
altogether  forget  the  Lord,  or  misuse  His  holy  name ;  they 
spring  from  the  lust  of  the  flesh,  from  carnal  and  creaturely 
merriment ;  that  is  all  that  they  can  express,  and  to  that  they 
cannot  fail  more  or  less  to  allure.  But  all  the  joy  of  a  Chris- 
tian should  be  sanctified  in  God  ;  natural  joy  is  ever  a  dangerous 
thing,  since  the  evil  nature  is  so  apt  to  mingle  with  it.  There- 
fore, as  we  sanctify  suffering  by  prayer,  and  banish  the  sadness 
of  the  heart  by  seeking  the  true  consolation,  so  should  we  also — 
means  St  James — retain  and  sanctify  the  merry  spirit  by  holy 
song  before  God.  All  our  joy  should  be  with  praise  and  thanks- 
giving in  His  presence. 

How  so  then  ?  Should  we  have  in  our  lips  only  songs  which 
expressly  utter  praise  and  thanksgiving  to  God  ?  Certainly  not, 
dear  brethren ;  and  he  who  should  wish  this  injunction  to  be 
fulfilled  in  such  pharisaic  literality  would  do  great  injustice  to 


474  PEAYING  AND  SINGING. 

its  free  and  gracious  meaning.  There  are  good  and  piu'e  songs 
for  merry  souls  which  are  not  directly  spiritual,  as  we  use  the 
term  ;  there  is  a  permitted  singing  together  of  the  people  of  God, 
wdiicli  may  be  a  human  participation  in  the  human,  and  not 
without  unexpressed  witness  to  God,  who  fills  our  hearts  with 
food  and  gladness  (Acts  xiv.  17).  There  are  songs  to  nature, 
national  and  patriotic  songs,  which  are  pure  to  the  pure,  though 
they  are  not  strictly  psalms  of  Israel.  When  the  Lord  in  His 
sublime  parable  mentions  the  music  and  dancing  of  the  whole 
house  on  an  occasion  of  great  joy  (Luke  xv.  25),  He  found 
nothing  therein  of  itself  criminal.  He  who  requires  us  to  be- 
come like  little  children,  will  take  no  offence  at  the  joyful  songs 
of  childlike  men.  We  would  not  even  reject  the  words  of  the 
son  of  Sirach,  when  rightly  understood,  though  they  are  not 
sufficiently  guarded: — "A  concert  of  music  in  a  banquet  of  wine 
is  as  a  signet  of  carbuncle  set  in  gold.  As  a  signet  of  an  eme- 
rald set  in  a  work  of  gold,  so  is  the  melody  of  music  with  plea- 
sant wine"  (Ecclus.  xxxii.  5,  6).  We  would  not  fanatically 
allow  nothing  but  psalms  to  be  sung ;  but  a  legitimate  piety 
requires  that  w^e  be  able  freely  and  cordially  to  connect  the  un- 
mentioned  name  of  God  with  every  song,  and  thus  make  of  it  a 
psalm. 

And  so  it  follows  that  we,  dear  brethren,  should  indeed,  when 
joyous,  find  the  best  and  most  natural  expression  of  our  joy  in 
psalms.  But  we  must  ask  what  these  strictly  mean.  First  of 
all,  this  sanctified  word  reminds  us  of  those  psalms  and  songs 
of  praise  which  the  Spirit  of  God  expressly  put  into  the  mouths 
of  His  people,  wherewith  to  praise  the  Lord  their  God.  The 
song  of  Moses  at  the  Red  Sea  is  not  lost  even  in  the  future 
glory  (Rev.  xv.  3).  We  hear  in  that,  "  The  Lord  is  my  strength 
and  song,  and  He  is  become  my  salvation"  (Ex.  xv.  2), — and 
Isaiah  prophesies  that  it  should  be  heard  again  from  the  re- 
deemed, "  The  Lord  Jehovah  is  my  strength  and  my  song,  He 
also  is  become  my  salvation!"  (Is.  xii.  2).  And  how  can  we 
sufficiently  honour  by  our  diligent  use  the  pre-eminently  so- 
called  psalms  cf  Israel,  in  which  the  son  of  Jesse  is  so  full  of 
grace  because  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  spake  by  him,  and  His 
word  was  in  his  tongue  (2  Sam.  xxiii.  1,  2),  with  all  the  other 
prophetic  hymns  which  the  same  Spirit  added  to  them  1  0  how 
lovely  was  the  sound  of  those  psalms  in  the  Temple,  in  the  way 


JAMES  V.  13.  475 

of  the  pilgi'images,  and  in  the  household  life  of  the  priestly 
people !  Our  Saviour  Himself  sanctified  at  the  last  Passover 
the  singing  of  those  psalms ;  and  we  His  disciples  should  never 
fail  to  have  recourse  to  the  inexhaustible  treasure  of  that  book 
of  prayer  and  praise.  These  hymns  were  all  in  common  called 
psalms,  that  is,  songs  of  praise,  although  there  is  in  them  much 
supplication,  and  mourning,  and  petition ;  but  the  very  singing 
of  a  song  of  lamentation  before  the  Lord  inspires  joy  into  the 
soul,  while  it  is  to  the  praise  of  His  name.  The  old  custom  of 
issuing  the  Psalter  with  the  New  Testament  and  our  hymn- 
books,  was  very  significant ;  teaching  us,  as  the  spiritual  Israel, 
never  to  forget  the  psahns  of  Israel.  The  Eeformed  Churches 
in  some  cases  pressed  this  too  far,  suffering  no  others  to  be  sung 
in  the  churches — though,  alas,  these  rhymed  translations  were 
too  often  full  of  human  errors! — Finally,  the  devout  reading 
of  a  psalm,  when  the  inner  man  utters  it  earnestly  before  God, 
may  itself  be  called  a  singing  and  making  melody  in  the  heart. 

But  as  the  singing  which  the  text  means  does  not  refer  only 
to  the  lips,  so  the  psahns  do  not  refer  to  those  alone  which  are 
found  in  Scripture  ;  for  St  James,  remijiding  us  of  those,  would 
rather  that  our  heart  should  compose  and  sing  new  psalms  also. 
The  same  Spirit  of  God  has  not  ceased  to  put  new  songs  into 
the  mouths  of  men  to  this  day.  In  the  apostolical  churches 
He  gave  birth  to  many  new  spiritual  songs  in  addition  to  the 
ancient  psalms,  so  that  many  who  prophesied  in  the  assembly 
had  psalms  to  bring  (1  Cor.  xiv.  2Q).  We  still  possess  many 
ecclesiastical  songs  of  the  first  ages.  And  our  German  people 
has  been  richer  than  all  others,  since  the  Reformation,  in  its 
precious  treasure  of  hymns ;  wherein  every  heart  may  find  ex- 
pression for  every  sentiment  that  may  be  uttered  before  God. 
Our  festival-hymns  have  almost  become  one  with  our  festivals  ; 
in  our  old  confession-hymns  there  is  a  might  of  testimony  which 
was  of  wonderful  influence  at  the  begijining  of  the  Keforma- 
tion,  and  which .  has  not  yet  lost  its  force ;  and  our  beautiful 
hymns  of  penitence  and  prayer  have  been  always  stamped  with 
the  blessing  of  God.  Alas,  that  there  should  not  be  wanting 
examples  of  the  perversion  and  corruption  of  our  hymnology  in 
our  modern  churches ! 

But  of  this  nothing  more  now ;  let  the  earnest  question  of 
all  be — Do  we  in  such  manner  sing,  that  even  our  song  may 


476  PRAYING  AND  SINGING. 

also  be  a  prayer  before  Godt  The  Apostle,  speaking  against 
unintelligible  words,  says,  "  I  will  pray  with  the  spirit,  and  I 
will  pray  loith  the  understanding  (intelligibly  to  the  church)  ;  I 
will  sing  with  the  spirit,  and  I  will  sing  with  the  understanding 
also  '  (1  Cor.  xiv.  15) ; — but  we  may  very  properly  invert  the 
words,  and  ask — Do  you  always  sing  m  the  spirit,  and  with  the 
heart,  and  from  the  ground  of  the  soul  ?  Or  even,  to  say  the 
least,  with  devotion,  understanding  and  reflecting  upon  the  words 
which  are  upon  your  lips ;  so  that  you  may,  according  to  the 
Apostle's  expression,  teach  and  exhort  yourselves  in  spiiitual 
songs'?  Alas,  there  is,  even  in  our  evangelical  worship,  too 
much  of  mere  vain  lip-ser\dce,  which  takes  the  place  of  the 
worship  which  should  be  in  spirit  and  in  truth  !  Alas,  there  is 
too  large  a  proportion  of  the  congregation  which  has  no  taste 
for  spiritual  song — in  itself  a  painful  token  that  true  devotion 
cannot  penetrate  and  seize  the  entire  man !  Otherwise,  the  first 
hymn  would  not  be  regarded  as  sung  merely  while  the  congre- 
gation is  coming  in,  and  the  concluding  verses  as  merely  sing- 
ing them  out.  The  one  would  be  regarded  as  helping  to  fit 
preparation  for  the  word  of  God,  and  the  other  would  confirm 
and  as  it  were  seal  the  sermon.  All  would  feel  anxious  to  add 
their  tribute  to  the  voice  of  the  conm-egation,  sino-ing  as  the 
voice  of  one  man  to  God.  All  would  seek  what  their  souls  need 
in  hymns,  as  a  channel  of  prayer.  May  the  Lord's  Spirit  amend 
what  is  wrong,  and  restore  us  oui'  ancient  heartiness  in  the 
Church's  service  of  song ! 

Into  oui'  houses,  also,  psalms  and  hymns  should  be  intro- 
duced, for  they  do  not  necessarily  belong  to  the  walls  of  our 
chiu'ches.  Be  not  contented,  brethren,  with  simply  reading, 
and  nothing  more  than  reading,  your  hymn-books  at  home.  It 
is  not  only  a  lovely  thing,  but  full  of  influence  and  blessing,  for 
the  members  of  the  family  to  join,  when  they  can  do  so,  in  the 
morning  and  evening  song.  And,  fm-ther,  the  individual 
Christian  may  well  sing  alone  before  his  God :  when  he  is  full 
of  joy,  wishing  that  he  had  a  thousand  tongues  for  a  thousand 
psalms  prompted  by  his  heart,  as  also  when  he  is  striving  to 
encourage  his  spirit  to  be  of  good  cheer.  Far  be  it  fi'om  us  to 
sink  into  that  despondency  and  weakness  of  faith  in  which  the 
captives  of  Zion  hanged  their  harps  on  the  willows  of  Babylon, 
and  wovdd  not  sing  the  Lord's  songs  in  a  strange  land  (Ps. 


JAMES  V.  13.  477 

cxxx\-ii.  2^).  But  tlie  tliree  men  in  the  burning  fiery  furnace 
sang !  Paul  and  Silas,  in  their  imprisonment,  with  their  feet 
fast  in  the  stocks,  first  prayed  and  then  sang  praise  to  God,  so 
that  their  fellow-prisoners  could  hear  them !  (Acts  xvi.  25). 
So  do  thou  pray,  O  sufferer,  and  thou  shalt  soon  praise  thy 
God !  How  many  have  sung  away  their  cares  and  sorrows  by 
the  well-lcnown  strains  of  our  own  hymn-book,  so  diversified  in 
their  adaptation  to  all  our  wants ! 

But,  in  order  to  this,  we  must  most  sincerely  and  earnestly 
exercise  ourselves  in  prayerful  singing.  We  must  in  our 
trouble  learn  aright  how  to  pray,  that  then  in  our  cheerfulness 
— and,  indeed,  that  we  may  become  of  good  cheer — we  may 
be  able  to  sing  the  right  psalms  in  the  right  spirit.  This  is  the 
most  internal  and  final  meaning  of  the  text :  in  all  things,  and 
without  intermission,  to  turn  the  heart,  and,  where  it  may  be, 
the  lips  also,  to  God ;  so  that  om*  heart  at  least  may  be  as  It 
were  a  harp,  on  which  the  strains  of  lamentation  or  songs  of 
joy  may  evermore  resomid  before  the  Lord.  All  naturally 
and  in  sincerity,  according  to  the  hand  and  dispensation  of 
Providence,  through  the  hours  of  good  or  evil ;  yet  so  that  the 
joyful  spirit  may  be  ever  more  and  more  apt  to  return  to  psalms 
of  thanksgi\ing  and  praise — until  the  day  shall  come  when 
nought  will  remain  but  eternal  gratitude  and  adoration  in  the 
psalm  of  salvation ! 


478  ORDINANCE  FOR  THE  SICK. 

XXXI. 

ORDINANCE  FOR  THE  SICK. 
(Ch.  V.  14-18.) 

Is  any  sick  among  you  ?  let  him  call  for  the  elders  of  the  church ;  and 
let  them  pray  over  him,  anointing  him  with  oil  in  the  name  of  the  Lord : 
and  the  prayer  of  faith  shall  save  the  sick,  and  the  Lord  shall  raise  him 
up  ;  and  if  he  have  committed  sins,  they  shall  be  forgiven  him.  Con- 
fess your  faults  one  to  another,  and  pray  one  for  another,  that  ye  may 
be  healed.  The  effectual  fervent  prayer  of  a  righteous  man  availeth 
much.  Ehas  was  a  man  subject  to  hke  passions  as  we  are,  and  he  prayed 
a  prayer  that  it  might  not  rain  :  and  it  rained  not  in  the  land  by  the 
space  of  three  years  and  six  months.  And  he  prayed  again,  and  the 
heaven  gave  rain,  and  the  earth  brought  forth  her  fruit. 

St  James  has  exhorted  us  to  prayer  in  joy  and  sorrow,  in 
need  and  prosj^erity ;  and  to  thankful  praise  in  happy  times,  as 
well  as  to  earnest  supplication  in  times  of  trial :  thus  he  has 
returned  again  to  the  subject  of  the  commencement  of  the 
Epistle.  There  he  began  with  the  great  promise,  that  God 
would  assuredly  give  with  simplicity  to  every  petitioner;  but 
added  the.  necessary  admonition,  that  he  must  ask  in  faith, 
notliing  doubting !  But  there  the  subject  was  spiritual  gifts 
for  the  need  of  the  soul: — if  any  man  lacked  wisdom,  or  the 
consolation  of  patience,  the  power  of  obedience,  the  joy  of 
faith  and  hope  in  tribulation.  And  many  of  his  readers  mis- 
take St  James — though,  for  the  mOst  part,  wilfully,  not  know- 
ing the  Scriptures,  nor  the  experience  of  believers — as  if  he 
allowed  validity  only  to  prayer  for  spiritual  good.  Is  any  man 
among  you  ajiicted  ?  let  him  prai/ !  he  has  just  been  saying. 
And,  if  this  is  an  external  affliction,  must  he  merely  pray  for 
consolation  and  a  resigned  will, — not  for  deliverance  from  the 
evil  of  his  evil  days  and  hours  ?  Often,  indeed,  the  best  and 
truest  prayer  would  ask  only  power  to' bear  the  tribulation ;  but 
then  our  infirmity  seldom  reaches  this  point,  and,  moreover,  we 
have  the  free  filial  right  to  our  Father's  help  from  trouble. 
Certainly,  there  are  many  external  tribulations  which  are  not  to 
remain  any  longer  than  the  sin  remains ;  and  certainly  it  is  the 


JAMES  V.  14-18.  479 

will  of  God  sometimes  to  reward  oiu-  faith  by  external  deliver- 
ances and  ansAvers  to  prayer,  coming  to  the  aid  of  our  weakness, 
to  the  glory  of  His  own  name.  That  no  one,  therefore,  may 
misunderstand  his  Epistle,  or  find  it  unintelligible  upon  this 
point,  St  James  takes  care  before  he  closes  to  e.vhort  icith  pro- 
mise to  prayer  for  hodily  and  earthly  help.  Of  this,  various 
kinds  might  have  been  mentioned :  If  any  man  lack  bread  or 
clothing — if  a  child  of  God  be  naked  and  destitute  of  daily 
food  (ch.  ii.  15) — if  he  be  suffering  pressing  want  as  to  any 
good  pertaining  to  earthly  life — in  all  cases  of  his  care  he  must 
make  his  requests  known  imto  God.  But,  for  the  sake  of  brevity, 
St  James  selects  from  them  all,  and  makes  prominent,  the 
most  ob\aous  case  of  bodily  distress,  when  he  goes  on — Is  any 
sick  among  you?  The  ordinance  for  the  sick  which  follovrs  is 
very  remarkable,  and  to  be  understood  only  according  to  the 
spirit  of  the  whole  context. 

Thus  much  we  observe  on  a  preliminary  glance  :  St  James 
recommends,  under  some  circumstances,  intercession  for  the 
sick  on  the  part  of  the  representatives  of  the  Chvirch ; — but  the 
great  point  was  always  to  be  the  forgiveness  of  sins,  and 
spiritual  healmg ;  — he  then  finally  confirms  the  power  of 
prayer,  both  in  heaven  and  upon  earth,  in  its  influence  upon 
the  body  and  life  of  an  individual  man,  by  an  eminer-t  example 
taken  from  Scripture. 

Under  some  circumstances,  we  said,  St  James  commends 
intercession  even  for  the  bodily  cure  of  a  sick  man ;  and  that 
not  merely  the  intercession  of  friends  or  brethren  as  such,  but 
in  the  name  of  the  whole  community,  one  of  whose  members  is 
suffering.  Is  any  sick  among  you?  let  him  call  the  elders  of 
the  church  !  It  is  obvious,  however,  that  this  cannot  be  meant 
as  a  universal  rule  or  command  in  every  case  of  sickness  in  a 
member  of  the  church.  If  so,  we  should  require  in  most  com- 
munities, where  generally  more  than  one  single  sick  man  is 
always  to  be  found,  many  elders  set  apart  to  this  express  func- 
tion. In  the  word  of  St  James  we  must  supply  much  that  is 
not  stated,  but  presupposed.  Thus,  for  example  :  Let  him  call 
the  physiciaji,  "  whom  the  Lord  created,  and  whose  healing 
cometh  from  the  Most  High"  (Ecclus.  xxxviii.  1,  2).  Fiu'ther, 
the  still  better  counsel  must  be  understood — Is  any  sick?  let 
him  submit  himself  to  the  dispensation  of  Providence  !     For  St 


480  ORDINANCE  FOR  THE  SICK. 

James  cannot  be  siip})osed  to  mean  that  every  sick  man  is  to 
look  beyond  everything  for  recovery  to  health.  Finally,  let 
him  pray  himself — as  was  said  before  to  the  afflicted  man.  For 
■what  would  be  the  intercession  of  others  without  his  own 
prayer  ?  But  the  physician  does  not  save  of  himself,  only  the 
Lord  by  means  of  him ;  submission  in  suffering  is  not  so  easy 
a  matter,  and  is  not  required  in  any  such  sense  as  that  further 
help  may  not  be  sought ;  one's  own  prayer,  finally,  may,  in  the 
time  of  bodily  weakness  which  oppresses  the  spirit,  be  weak  and 
insufficient.  St  James  refers  here  to  such  cases ;  for  he  does 
not  use  the  word  which  in  the  original  commonly  expresses  the 
being  sick,  but — Is  any  man  weak  ?  that  is,  weak  in  body,  op- 
pressed through  the  body  with  weakness  of  soul,  so  that  he  must 
look  about  him  for  comfort  and  invigoration,  and  feels  his  deep 
need  of  help  from  without.  Then  his  sickness  must  become  a 
matter  of  the  church,  through  its  representatives  summoned. 
Yes,  indeed,  it  is  the  duty  of  these  elders  to  care  for  the  sick 
as  well  as  the  poor ;  they  should  also  visit,  even  though  not 
called,  the  sick  in  their  affliction.  But  should  that  not  be  the 
case,  and  the  sickness  be  unknown  to  the  elders,  St  James 
gives  the  member  of  the  chm'ch  a  ^ight  expressly  to  send  for 
those  who  shotJd  visit  him.  And  whom  does  he  thus  mention  ? 
Not  simply  the  elder,  who  labours  in  the  word  and  doctrine,  the 
pastor  and  teacher,  the  presiding  elder  or  bishop.  The  apos- 
tolical churches  knew  nothing  of  the  unnatural  custom  of  our 
days,  to  remit  every  official  work  to  one  man,  and  impose  every 
official  burden  in  the  community  to  one  functionary.  We 
ministers,  if  we  are  wise,  shall  not  desire  this,  to  be  always 
and  alone  summoned  to  all  houses,  to  administer  comfort  and 
offer  prayer  in  all  bodily  and  spiritual  troubles;  for  more  would 
be  then  exacted  than  we  could  accomplish  (Ecclus.  iii.  22). 
The  first  whom  a  sick  man  should  call  would  naturally  be  one 
familiar  to  him  in  ordinary  life,  a  friend  and  brother  whose 
sympathy  would  be  intimate  and  sure.  St  James  sm'ely  could 
not  preclude  that,  and  absolutely  insist  upon  official  visitation 
instead  of  it.  But,  if  the  sick  man  has  to  say  like  him  in  the 
Gospel — I  have  no  man  to  put  me  into  the  pool  of  grace  pro- 
vided for  me — or  if  he  should  laudably  feel  more  confidence  in 
the  ministers  who  are  appointed  by  the  church  in  the  Loi'd's  name 
— then  he  may  and  should  call  the  elders  :  this  is  the  counsel, 


JAMES  V.  U-18.  481 

commandment,  or  permission,  according  to  circumstances.  For 
this  purpose  they  are  appointed  ;  and  every  man  who  seeks 
grace  or  consolation  tlu'ough  the  Church  should  be  able  to 
rely  upon  them.  But,  once  more,  when  the  elders  are  men- 
tioned, we  are  not  to  understand  that  the  whole  presbytery 
are  to  be  solemnly  and  formally  assembled  round  the  sick 
man  ;  it  means,  according  to  common  usage,  one  or  any  number 
of  them. 

What  then  are  those  called  to  do  ?  Tliey  may  pray  over 
him.  Obviously,  in  unison  with  the  sick  man  himself,  who 
called  them  for  this  pui'pose,  who  prays  himself,  and  would  have 
his  weak  prayers  strengthened.  This  saying  of  St  James  gives 
no  countenance  to  the  superstition  which  sends  for  the  minister 
to  "  pray  over  the  sick,"  when  these  have  scarce  any  conscious- 
ness left,  and  which  expects  something  wonderful  to  be  the  result. 
The  elders  have  a  pre-eminent  power  in  prayer,  not  so  much  be- 
cause of  their  official  character  personally,  as  because  they  do 
what  they  do  in  the  name  of  the  Lo7'd  and  of  His  Church.  The 
very  different  custom  of  asking  for  the  common  intercession  of 
the  church  in  the  public  service,  is  very  highly  to  be  com- 
mended. For  what,  further,  may  and  should  the  elders  pray  ? 
Assuredly,  in  the  first  place,  for  bodily  healing,  as  the  connec- 
tion implies ;  yet  not  unconditionally,  and  still  less  in  all  cases,  or 
simply  because  the  sick  man  himself  desires  it.  As  the  Lord, 
with  His  Apostles,  did  not  always  and  everywhere  make  the 
sick  whole  at  once  and  collectively,  so  the  Apostles  themselves 
could  not  in  many  cases  use  their  miraculous  power  for  that 
purpose,  even  if  they  had  desired.  Of  Epaphroditus  St  Paul 
says — He  was  sick  unto  death,  but  God  had  mercy  upon  him  ; 
and  not  on  him  only,  but  on  me  also,  that  I  might  not  have 
trouble  upon  trouble  (Phil.  ii.  27).  Trophimus  he  left  at  Mile- 
tum  sick,  without  laying  hands  upon  him  that  he  might  recover 
(2  Tim.  iv.  20).  To  his  beloved  son  Timothy  he  has  only  medi- 
cal advice  to  give  (1  Tim.  v.  23).  Yea,  against  his  own  thorn 
in  the  flesh  he  prays  thrice  to  the  Lord,  and  receives  only  the 
answer — My  grace  is  sufficient  for  thee ;  for  My  strength  is 
made  perfect  in  weakness  !  (2  Cor.  xii.  7-9).  And  here  St 
James  does  not  presuppose  any  proper  miracidous  gift  among 
the  elders,  for  he  would  then  have  spoken  rather  of  the  laying 
on  of  their  hands  ;  but  he  does  presume  upon  a  power  of  prayer^ 

z<  n 


482  ORDINANCE  FOR  THE  SICK. 

as  it  is  promised  to  the  whole  Church  cloAvn  to  the  present  day.^ 
That  he  thinks  primarily  of  praying  for  health,  is  clear  from  the 
added  clause — and  anoint  him  with  oil.  Little  will  suffice  to 
show  the  wilful  folly  with  which  the  Romanists  base  their  inven- 
tion of  "  extreme  unction"  upon  this  passage  :  St  James  does  not 
speak  of  a  sacramental  act  of  an  ordained  priest,  when  he  men- 
tions the  elders  collectively ;  nor  does  he  prescribe  anything  ne- ' 
cessar}-  to  be  done,  as  we  have  seen  ;  nor  does  he,  finally,  direct 
the  anointing  to  sei've  as  a  preparation  for  death,  but  as  a  means 
rather  of  cure.  We  find  the  anointing  with  oil  to  have  been  an 
ancient  usage  in  Israel,  of  beautiful  significance  :  St  James  lets 
it  remain,  and  by  the  name  of  the  Lord  sanctifies  it  in  the  Church. 
As  wounds  were  mollified  with  ointment  (Luke  x.  34  ;  Is.  i.  6), 
so  at  the  same  time  the  anointing  with  oil  is  the  consecrated 
symbol  of  the  Holy  Split's  consolation  and  power  in  the  soul. 
Hence  this  oil  was  itself  a  sign  in  connection  with  the  interces- 
sion and  help,  like  many  other  signs  which,  even  in  miraculous 
healings,  are  found  as  assistances  and  stimulants  of  faith,  both 
for  the  sick  and  for  those  who  help  him.  No  other  Avas,  for 
example,  the  plaister  of  figs  which  Isaiah  commanded  to  be 
apphed  to  king  Hezekiah  (Is.  xxxviii.  21).  Thus  the  Lord 
Himself  condescended  sometimes  to  the  weakness  of  the  sick  in 
the  same  way,  as  when  He  made  clay  with  the  spittle  (Mark  vii. 
33,  viii.  23 ;  John  ix.  6).  Here,  indeed,  the  elders  take  no- 
thing of  their  own  person  ;  but  they  anoint  in  the  name  of  the 
Lord,  as  the  Apostles  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  laid  on  their 
hands.  On  their  first  probationary  mission,  the  Apostles,  accord- 
ing to  their  weakness,  used  the  anointing  with  oil,  as  Mark  vi. 
13  records;  although  there  was  no  such  command  given  to 
til  em  when  they  were  sent,  nor,  apart  fi'om  this  passage,  is  there 
any  allusion  to  it  elsewhere.  We  may  even  in  the  present  day, 
when  a  childhke  faith  might  demand  a  symbol  or  palpable 
sign,  do  the  same,  or  something  like  it,  with  what  would  answer 
to  oil  in  Palestine,  but  we  may  also  leave  it  alone.  We  may, 
finally,  take  the  word  of  om-  text  in  its  most  spiritual  mean- 
ing ;  and  interpret  it  as  intimating  that  medicine  and  all  kinds 
of  external  means  may  be  united  with  the  instrument  of  prayer. 

^  So  that,  according  to  Bcngel's  expression,  we  have  here  also  the  medi- 
cal faculty  in  the  Church,  as  in  1  Cor.  vi.  2-5  tlie  judicial.  This  is  to  us, 
indeed,  a  far-reaching  and  humbling  word  of  faith ! 


JAMES  V.  14-18.  483 

And  tlie  prayer  of  faith  will  help  the  sick,  St  James  pro- 
mises: thus  the  prayer^  and  not  the  oil,  or  whatever  else  there 
might  be ;  in  eveiy  case  it  will  help,  save,  serve  for  health,  and 
help  even  when  no  bodily  healing  followed.  The  Lord,  who  alone 
can  do  this,  and  who  hears  prayer  offered  in  His  own  name,  will 
assuredly  raise  up  the  sick  :  thus  does  St  James  carefully  word 
his  expression,  because  he  cannot  unconditionally  recommend 
the  prayer  which  demands  recovery,  or  unconditionally  promise 
that  it  shall  be  heard.  Here,  again,  there  is  a  specific  expres- 
sion for  what  we  translate  the  sich :  prayer  will  avail  for  the 
invigoration  of  the  exhausted  and  miserable ;  the  Lord  will  raise 
up  the  plagued  and  downcast — if  it  so  please  Him,  even  to 
soundness  of  body,  certainly  to  comfort  of  soul,  and  joy  in 
tribulation.  For  this  is  the  great  matter — If  he  have  committed 
sins,  they  shall  be  forgiven  to  him.  Here  St  James  obviously 
passes  over  from  the  body  to  the  soul ;  and  teaches  us  what  we 
asserted  at  the  beginning —  The  great  concern  is  ever  forgiveness 
of  sins  and  sjnritual  restoration  to  health  I 

Assm'edly,  in  all  sickness  the  sick  man  himself,  and  every- 
one who  would  truly  help  and  raise  him  up,  should  never  over- 
look this  great  principle,  and  neglect  it  in  concern  for  bodily 
cure.  He  whose  bed  the  Lord  shall  make  in  his  sickness,  and 
whom  the  Lord  will  comfort,  must  before  all  things  be  ready  to 
cr}'- — Lord,  be  merciful  to  me  :  heal  my  soul,  for  I  have  sinned 
against  Thee !  (Ps.  xli.  3,  4).  How  far  from  this  is  the  be- 
haviour of  too  many  so-called  Chi'istians  in  their  sickness,  how 
different  the  view  they  take  of  their  affliction !  It  is  not  received 
as  from  the  hand  of  God,  which,  however,  is  never  absent  in 
the  government  of  the  world  ;  but  the  natural  mind  will  hold  to 
natural  causes — "  The  evil  weather  has  brought  it  upon  me — I 
overlooked  this  or  that — it  is  in  my  constitution."  They  do  not 
turn  to  the  Lord  as  a  helper,  who  alone  can  bless  all  means  that 
are  used ;  but  send  for  the  physician,  and,  if  he  do  not  cure, 
for  another.  They  do  not  humble  themselves  under  the  mighty 
hand  of  God,  so  as  to  hear  the  knocking  of  death  and  of  judg- 
ment— but  "  I  am  not  in  such  a  dangerous  state ;  the  physi- 
cian is  skilful,  and  my  nature  is  still  strong ;  to  tliink  of  dying 
and  repentance  would  be  weakness,  and  even  damage  my  case !" 
Alas  that  our  physicians  so  often  strengthen  this  unbelieving  mind, 
which  knows  and  will  know  nothing  about  ihe  prayer  of  faith!  O 


484  ORDINANCE  FOR  THE  SICK. 

that  the  work  and  care  of  our  physicians  and  pastors — those  who 
care  for  the  body,  and  those  who  care  for  the  soul — were  more  in 
concert  for  the  good  of  our  sick  !  So  should  it  be,  since  in  the 
cause  and  purpose  of  every  sickness  fi'om  God,  body  and  soul 
are  alike  concerned.  Here,  as  always,  it  is  the  whole  maji ;  as 
some  one  has  said,^  body  and  soul  are  by  no  means  connected 
like  sword  and  sheath,  so  that  each  might  be  cared  for  alone 
and  of  itself,  the  sheath  being  handed  over  to  the  belt-maker  to 
mend,  and  the  blade  to  the  sword-polisher  to  sharpen.  God's 
Spirit  teaches  the  true  Christian  to  say  in  his  sickness — "  The 
Lord  has  visited  and  laid  me  low  in  body,  but  only  for  the  sake 
of  my  soul ;  then  I  will  try  myself,  and  find  out  ivhi/  and  to 
tohat  end  this  sickness  now  rests  upon  me  from  His  hand." 
There  are,  indeed,  many  self-invoked  sicknesses,  caused  not 
simply  by  errors  in  diet,  but  by  sins  which  have  been  committed ; 
with  sometimes  a  direct  connection  between  the  sin  and  the 
sickness ;  sometimes  without  it,  yet  so  that  the  sick  man,  if  he 
examines  himself  carefully,  wall  know  whence  and  wherefore 
his  affliction  has  come.  There  are  judicial  sicknesses  inflicted 
on  sinners  ;  yet,  not  that  every  sickness  is  to  be  so  regarded,  for 
many  come  for  the  glory  of  God,  that  His  works  may  be  shown 
forth  in  the  cxire  of  body  or  soul  (John  xi.  4,  ix.  3).  Therefore 
St  James,  referring  to  the  sins  of  the  sick  man  which  caused 
his  sickness,  can  only  say — And  if  lie  have  committed  sins ;  for 
the  rest,  every  man  has  committed  many  sins.  There  are,  fur- 
ther, sicknesses  which  preserve  and  save  the  soul,  which  the 
heavenly  Physician  sends  as  medicine :  who  Avould,  knowing 
this,  pray  against  the  wholesome  cup,  either  for  himself  or  for 
others  ?  All  this  the  sick  man  ought  to  know,  as  it  respects  his 
own  case,  through  thorough  self-examination  ;  but  because  this 
is  sometimes  harder  than  for  a  skilful  physician  to  form  an  un- 
biassed judgment  on  his  own  case,  therefore  the  brethren  and 
friends,  the  elders  called  in,  should  co-operate  to  assist  him  in 
the  knowledge  of  his  state.  But  this  can  be  only  when  the  sick 
man  docs  sincerely  open  his  heart  to  them.  They  may  find  him 
disposed  as  was  the  paralytic,  whose  heart  was  concerned  only 
about  the  forgiveness  of  his  sins  ;  or  theij  will  know,  in  their 
experience,  whether  or  not  this  wholesome  sickness  is  a  crisis 
of  the  soul,  is  like  many  an  evil  in  the  body  which  the  physician 
'  If  I  mistake  not,  De  Valeuti. 


JAMES  V.  14-18.  485 

does  not  therefore  at  once  remove.  In  eveiy  case,  however,  and 
always,  even  when  their  intercession  enters  into  the  sick  man's 
longing  to  recover,  they  will  make  it  their  chief  concern  to 
assist  the  soul,  in  all  theii  visitations  of  the  sick.  The  sufferer 
may  be  raised  up  to  consolation  and  spiritual  power,  from  every 
sickness ;  but  such  a  raising  up  comes  only  from  the  Lord. 
Again,  the  Lord  uses  to  that  end  ministers  and  instruments, 
who  anoint,  console,  and  pray  in  His  name ;  but  the  absolute 
condition  of  their  raising  up  even  the  soul,  is  the  confession  of 
the  afflicted. 

Confess  your  sins  one  to  another  !  We  observe  how  natu- 
rally and  necessarily  this  must  follow  for  their  perfect  direction. 
But  why  does  St  James  say,  not  merely — Let  the  sick  man 
confess  to  the  elders ;  but —  Confess  one  to  another  ?  First, 
because  the  elder  is  not  a  specially  consecrated  confessor-priest, 
but  a  brother  in  Christ ;  consequently,  he  who  confesses  in  his 
presence  does  no  more  than  what  generally  brethren  may  and 
should  do  before  one  another.  Every  Christian  ought  to  be 
able  to  be  to  another  a  priest  who  receives  confession  and  mini- 
sters absolution.  St  James  then  extends  the  position,  and  at 
the  same  time  lays  down  an  absolutely  universal  rule  for  mutual 
confession  of  sins,  about  which  alone  a  long  sermon  might  be 
preached.  Not  only  should  the  afflicted  and  tempted  soul  con- 
fess to  the  elder  called  in  ;  but  every  one,  when  there  is  occasion 
for  it,  that  is,  when  he  has  sinned  against  his  brother,  should 
confess  his  sins  to  his  brother.  How  much  more  should  he  have 
heart  and  courage  to  do  so  in  the  presence  of  the  elder,  already 
marked  out  by  the  confidence  of  the  church  !  Alas,  that  there 
should  be  many  single  pastors  in  gi*eat  communities,  through 
whose  want  of  pastoral  intercourse  with  the  multitudes  of  their 
flock  it  has  come  to  pass  that  the  sick  would  more  readily  and 
sincerely  open  their  minds  to  others  than  to  them  !  But  would 
that  all  the  sick  were  ready,  whether  to  the  elder  or  to  any  other, 
to  pour  out  the  acknowledgment  of  their  sins  !  This  is  the  great 
matter  in  all  brotherly  and  official  visitation  of  the  sick  ;  with- 
out that  the  desired  talking  and  praying  has  no  ground  to  pro- 
ceed upon,  and  often  exerts  no  influence.  Most  vain  is  the  late 
summons  of  the  minister,  when  the  best  season  for  the  care  of 
the  soul  is  past ;  most  unhappy  in  evangelical  communities  is 
the  superstition  which  attaches  specific  power  or  merit  to  the 


486  ORDINANCE  FOE  THE  SICR. 

visit  of  the  clergy  as  an  external  work.  But  most  deplorable  is 
the  perversion  of  the  Communion  of  the  sick.  It  is  observable 
that  St  James,  mentioning  the  anointing  with  oil,  does  not  say 
anything  about  offering  the  sick  man  the  consecrated  bread  and 
wine.  In  the  first  ages  of  the  Church  there  can  be  found  no 
trace  of  such  an  application  of  the  Eucharist.  By  this  we 
would  not  intimate  that  the  subsequent  and  present  custom  is 
simply  wrong  and  sinful.  But  assuredly  this  is  wrong,  that 
people  who  for  many  long  years  have  never  sought  the  Lord's 
table  should  finally  only  in  the  fear  of  death  stretch  out  their 
hands  to  His  body  and  blood,  in  mere  anxiety  about  their  own 
souls,  and  without  any  fellowship  with  the  chm'ch  in  then"  hearts. 
There  is  danger  of  our  making  the  Commmiion  at  sick-beds  an 
evangelical  "  final  unction ;"  and  worse  than  that  of  the  Roman- 
ists, as  being  a  perversion  of  a  sacrament  really  instituted  by 
Christ.  Finally,  the  individual  partaking  of  the  Eucharist, 
without  any  fellowship  in  breaking  and  distribution,  is  some- 
what opposed  to  the  spirit  of  the  institution  ;  and  we  ought  at 
least  to  be  careful  that  the  members  of  the  family  or  other 
friends  should  be  present  on  every  such  occasion. 

But  let  us  return  to  our  text.  Confess  your  sins  one  to 
another,  and  pra?/  for  one  another,  that  ye  may  he  tvhole.  Thus 
St  James  imposes,  not  only  the  receiving  of  confession,  but  also 
the  intercession,  upon  every  member  of  the  chm'ch  in  common 
with  the  elders,  upon  every  brother  for  his  brother.  But  when, 
in  connection  with  the  confession  of  sin,  he  speaks  quite  gene- 
rally of  being  healed,  we  plainly  see  that  he  refers  pre-eminently 
to  spiritual  health,  to  the  cure  of  the  soul — "that  ye  may  be 
at  all  events  healed  of  your  sins ! "  To  the  healmg  of  the  body, 
also,  the  prayer  of  faith  will  avail  only  when  to  that  very  end 
it  is  a  prayer  of  faith ;  that  is,  not  only  the  prayer  of  a  believer, 
but  offered  in  faith,  in  that  confidence  of  the  attainment  of  the 
present  object  which  can  alone  make  the  supplication  for  bodily 
help  possible  to  be  granted.  Often  in  our  own  hearts  we  must 
think — I  cannot  here  pray  for  bodily  cure ;  or  the  Lord  pre- 
vents it  by  His  Spirit — Thou  shalt  not !  But  in  other  cases, 
and  those  not  a  few,  the  obstacle  is  in  om'  own  weakness  of  faith  ; 
and  with  reference  to  this,  St  James  encom'agingly  adds — The 
prayer  of  the  righteous  man  availeth  much,  if  it  is  earnest.  He 
who  thus  mightily  and  effectually  would  summon  the  other  helps  of 


JAMES  r.  14-18.  487 

God,  must  obviously  be  himself  a  righteous  man  in  his  faith 
before  God ;  and  then  must  be  able  to  take  with  him,  for  this 
special  case,  the  whole  might  of  his  trust  in  the  power  of  God. 
Such  a  prayer  is  not  a  begging  and  whimpering  extorted  by  the 
flesh,  nor  is  it  a  thoughtless  demand  on  the  ground  of  a  promise 
lightly  understood ;  this  effectual  'prayer  of  a  righteous  man  is 
an  exceedingly  great  and  unfrequent  thing.  But  it  availeth 
even  for  external  requests :  if  not  for  all — for  the  Lord  might 
here  withstand  the  mightiest  faith,  according  to  His  counsel,  as 
He  did  the  Apostle's  cry  for  deliverance  from  his  thorn — yet 
it  availeth  much,  very  much  more  than  our  weak  faith  generally 
conceives  or  hopes. 

This  power  of  prayer  St  James  finally  confirms  by  a  great 
examp>le  from  Holy  Scripture.  He  was  himself  called  "  the 
Just,"  and  celebrated  as  mighty  m  prayer;  but  he  naturally 
abstains  from  referring  to  any  experiences  of  his  own,  preferring 
now,  at  the  close  of  his  Epistle,  to  resort  once  more  to  the 
treasui'es  of  the  Scripture  history,  from  which  he  had  already 
derived  examples  of  suffering  and  patience.  After  the  manner 
of  the  Old  Testament,  and  for  the  encouragement  of  our  weakness, 
the  ancient  Scriptures  present  very  many  examples  of  the  hear- 
ing of  prayer  in  external  things.  How  many  might  St  James 
have  mentioned !  He  now  selects  the  great  Elijah ;  but  he 
wisely  adds  a  single  word  which  holds  good  of  all  the  typical 
and  illustrious  saints  of  old.  We  must  not  say — But  that  w^as 
a  special  time,  and  those  were  special  saints !  The  whole 
Scripture  knows  nothing  of  that  false  reverence  which  would 
place  Prophets  and  xlpostles  far  above  us,  and  beyond  the  reach 
of  our  imitation.  Of  every  holy  man  it  may  be  said,  as  it  is 
here  said  of  Elias — he  was  a  mxxn  like  ourselves;  properly,  a 
man  of  like  passions,  subject  to  the  same  weakness  and  sensa- 
tion (as  in  Acts  xiv.  15) ;  no  other  than  a  man,  in  himself  sin- 
ful, mortal,  oppressed,  —  in  himself  of  the  same  condition  and 
character  as  we.  He  was  as  we  are,  and  we  like  him :  the 
grace  of  God  which  he  possessed  is  equally  open  and  ready 
for  us.  The  power  of  God  in  him  is  also  at  our  disposal,  if  we 
pray  as  he  prayed ;  for  Elijah,  like  every  other  man,  obtained 
and  accomplished  that  which  makes  him  so  great  before  our 
eyes,  only  through  prayer.  Then  came  the  unknown,  and  never 
before  mentioned,  stranger  from  Gilead,  and  stood  suddenly 


ORDINANCE  FOR  THE  SICK. 

like  a  messenger  from  heaven  before  the  idolatrous  king — "As 
the  Lord  God  of  Israel  liveth,  before  whom  I  stand,  there 
shall  not  be  dew  nor  rain  these  years,  but  according  to  my 
word ! "  (1  Kings  xvii.  1).  This  sounds  almost  as  if  the  Lord 
had  sent  him  directly  with  only  this  message ;  but  in  the  last 
word,  "  but  according  to  my  word,"  there  is  already  hinted 
what  the  Apostle  here  conclusively  explains  :  Elijah  had  prayed 
a  prayer  that  it  might  not  rain,  and  it  rained  not  upon  that 
earth — or,  as  we  say,  in  the  land — for  three  years  and  six  months. 
Thus  the  long  drought  and  dearth  (the  duration  of  which  our 
Lord  also,  Luke  iv.  25,  so  expressly  marks)  was  invoked  by 
the  prayer  of  a  man  zealous  for  the  honour  of  God,  just  as 
afterwards  the  fire  was  called  down  from  heaven  for  a  testimony. 
Thus,  as  St  James  probably  would  incidentally  intimate,  by 
this  example,  the  effectual  prayer  of  a  righteous  man  may 
indeed  call  down  pvinishments,  judgments,  and  visitations  upon 
sinners,  may  pray  for  salutary  sickness  instead  of  healing  in 
the  name  of  the  Lord.  But  here  it  means  pre-eminently — 
Become  first  what  Elias  was,  who  stood  before  the  Lord,  and 
then  mayest  thou  do  as  Elias  did.  Then  wilt  thou  also  be 
able  in  due  time  to  speak  as  he  did,  when  the  evil  had  endured 
long  enough — He  prayed  again,  and  the  heaven  gave  rain,  and 
the  earth  brought  forth  her  fruits.  This  second  prayer,  with 
its  urgency,  is,  notwithstanding  the  already  presvipposed  grant- 
ing of  it,  1  Kings  xviii.  41-45,  expressly  related ;  but  it  is 
remarkable  that  in  the  first  verse  of  the  chapter  the  Lord  had 
already  said  to  Elijah — Go,  show  thyself  unto  Ahab;  and  I 
will  send  rain  upon  the  earth !  Whence  we  should  further  learn, 
that  prayers  of  this  kind  are  appointed  beforehand  by  the 
Lord  Himself,  and  then  by  His  Spirit  put  into  the  hearts  of 
His  servants ;  that  both  go  together  or  meet — the  power  of 
God  and  the  faith  of  man. 

So  much,  however,  is  certain,  that  God  would  often  give  us 
such  prayers,  even  in  our  day,  if  He  found  in  us  the  requisite 
faith.  As  heaven  and  earth  heard  the  voice  of  Elijah  the  man 
of  God,  so  do  all  the  powers  of  Nature  still  obey  the  voice  of 
praying  faith.  The  God  of  Elijah  still  liveth,  and  is  the  same; 
but  the  faith,  the  spirit,  and  the  power  of  Elijah  have  become 
rare ;  he  has  few  successors,  who  have  received  his  mantle,  to 
strike  the  waters  with  it.     Where  is  the  Lord  God  of  Elijah  ? 


JAMES  V.  19,  20.  489 

(2  Kings  ii.  14).  And  yet  Christ  saith  to  His  disciples,  that 
they  in  faith  should  do  greater  works  than  Himself  had  done ; 
how  much  greater  works  than  those  of  all  the  men  of  God 
before  Him  !  He  who  can  pray  in  the  name  of  Jesus,  hath  the 
greatest  promise  and  the  most  effectual  strength.  May  the 
Lord  increase  in  us  the  spirit  of  faith ! 


xxxn. 

THE  GREATEST  NEED,  AND  THE  GREATEST  WORK  OF  FAITH. 

(Ch.  V.  19,  20.) 

Brethren,  if  any  of  yoii  do  err  from  the  truth,  and  one  convert  him ;  Let 
him  know,  that  he  which  converteth  the  sinner  from  the  error  of  his  way 
shall  save  a  soul  from  death,  and  shall  hide  a  multitude  of  sins. 

Faith  does  all !  It  is  faith  that  is  always  in  question  !  Faith 
it  is  that  is  wanting !  This  is  the  doctrine  and  testimony  of  the 
whole  Epistle  of  St  James,  in  common  with  all  Scripture. 
Those  who  are  rich  in  faith,  and  therefore  heirs  of  the  kingdom, 
heirs  of  the  promise  to  those  who  love  Him  in  faith,  hath  God 
chosen  (ch.  ii.  5).  If  I  thus  believe  with  Prophets  and  Apostles, 
if  I  thus  believe  with  all  the  holy  men  who  even  before  Christ 
were  made  righteous,  and  availed  much,  through  faith — I  also 
belong  to  all  the  chosen  of  God !  Of  every  one  of  them  it  is 
said,  as  of  Ehas — He  was  a  man  like  ourselves — concerning 
Avhich  word  much  more  might  be  said.  Even  for  the  operation 
of  faith  and  its  effectual  prayer  upon  external  nature,  so  that 
heaven  and  earth  must  hearken  to  us,  like  Elijah,  the  word 
holds  good  also — We  are,  in  God's  power,  of  like  power  "vvith 
him  !  Our  faith  may  remove  mountains  (Matt.  XAdi.  20) — and 
why  not  now  pray  a  brother  into  soundness?  But  we  have 
already  seen  how  St  James  wisely  limited  the  exercise  of  faith 
in  relation  to  this,  and  already  hinted  at  the  greater  need  of 
the  soul,  and  to  that  which  alone  is  good  for  the  tnie  raising 
up  of  the  man.  But  he  will  not  close  his  Epistle  with  this  simple 
hint;  he  will  more  explicitly  declare  at  the  end  what  man's 
greatest  distress  is,  and  what  his  best  help ;  consequently,  what 


490      GREATEST  NEED,  AND  GREATEST  WORK  OF  FAITH. 

is  the  greatest  work  of  faith,  which  in  its  charity  would  bring 
God's  help  to  a  brother.  No  one  should  be  tempted  to  think  at 
the  conclusion,  in  opposition  to  the  tenor  of  the  whole  Epistle, 
that  the  loorlcs  of  faith  which  it  demands  are  pre-eminently  great 
things  of  the  kind  which  Elijah  wi'ought.  The  one  great  work 
of  faith  is  love,  which  showeth  mercy ;  that  is,  before  and  above 
all,  the  true  mercy  of  God  to  the  soul  of  a  brother  in  sin. 

Wherefore  and  to  what  end  did  Elijah  pray  first  for  drought, 
and  then  for  rain  ?  In  order  that  the  might  and  honour  of  the- 
Lord  against  Baal  might  be  manifest  to  all  Israel,  erring  from  the 
truth,  tie  would  fain  by  such  signs  have  converted  all  the  sinners 
from  the  error  of  their  way,  the  whole  people  from  their  idolatry ; 
but  this  indeed  all  his  faith  availed  not  to  do,  on  account  of  the 
unbelief  of  those  sinners.  But  we  see,  however,  how  consistent 
with  all  it  is  that  St  James  should  in  the  conclusion  speak  of 
the  conversion  of  sinners.  He  shows  us  the  greatest  need  in  the 
Church ;  and  here,  where  the  least  help  and  the  utmost  power 
of  God  is  concerned,  the  greatest  ivork  of  faith,  which  is  mighty 
and  effectual  in  love. 

Brethren,  if  any  of  you  do  err  from  the  truth :  this  is  much 
worse  than  what  went  before — Is  any  man  sick  among  you  ? 
This  is  the  real  and  greatest  distress,  which  demands  help  from 
the  faith  which  exists  in  the  Church  for  the  good  of  the  bre- 
thren !  If  any  of  you  err — this  seems  at  first  to  have  a  gentle 
sound,  like  that  other  word — If  a  man  be  overtaken  in  a  fault 
(Gal.  vi.  1).  But  when  we  read  on,  we  mark  that  St  James 
means  here  a  much  greater  erring  than  that.  Indeed,  brethren 
ought  not  to  err  or  be  overtaken  in  fault ;  every  error,  even  of 
knowledge,  from  the  truth,  might  be  perilous  in  its  consequences 
upon  the  life  ;  although,  in  our  state  of  partial  knowledge,  not 
every  error  of  knowledge  and  understanding  is  actually  hurtful, 
because  the  heart  may  be  better  than  the  head.  But  St  James 
is  not  speaking  of  such  slight,  and  possibly  not  dangerous,  errors ; 
he  means  an  erring  from  the  truth  which  is  an  actual  wandering, 
an  error  of  the  way,  in  which  the  sinner  walks.  An  Apostle 
says — I  have  no  greater  joy  than  to  hear  that  my  children  tvalk 
in  the  truth  (3  John  4)  ;  and  every  loving  brother  imitates  him 
— I  have  no  greater  joy  than  this,  to  see  my  brethren  walking 
in  the  truth.  Consequently,  there  is  no  distress  that  troubles 
me  more,  than  to  see  that  there  are  many  who  walk  in  the  error 


JAMES  V.  19,  20.  491 

of  their  ways !  St  James  speaks  afterwards  of  death ;  he  means, 
therefore,  a  perfect  and  entire  departure  from  the  way  of  life. 
He  does  not  say  merely — And  one  teach  liim,  or  help  him  to 
right  judgment ;  but  he  speaks  of  a  needful  and  absolute  con- 
version of  the  sinner. 

And  yet  such  a  sinner  is  a  man  among  you,  a  brother,  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Church  of  Christ !  Verily,  that  there  are  such  among 
us,  is  the  gi'eatest  trouble  of  our  times.  Then,  when  St  James 
wrote,  the  people  with  few  exceptions  came  not  unconverted  into 
the  community ;  and  the  growing  up  of  those  born  in  it  was  on 
the  whole  a  sanctified  growth  in  the  blessing  of  grace.  Therefore 
St  James  thought  especially  of  those  who  had  known  the  tinith, 
but  who  had  been  unfaithful  to  it ;  of  those  also,  the  worst  and 
most  wretched,  who  had  not  relinquished  the  knowledge  and  the 
confession  of  the  truth,  but  who  were  not  obedient  to  it  in  the 
conduct  of  their  life,  who  walked  not  in  it.  Thus  here,  if  we 
would  rightly  apprehend  our  text,  he  does  not  speak  of  unbe- 
lievers without,  the  Jews  and  the  heathens ;  nor  of  those  who, 
like  multitudes  of  heathens  now,  had  never  heard  the  word; 
nor  of  those  who,  Hke  the  Jews  of  that  time,  had  heard  the 
Gospel  abundantly  preached,  but  had  never  received  it.  The 
sinners  to  be  converted  were  in  the  midst  of  the  Church,  bore 
the  good  Name  by  which  we  are  called,  had  the  word  of  truth 
in  theu"  hps — and  yet  walked  in  the  error  of  their  ways  to 
death ! 

We  now  think  naturally — looking  at  our  present  churches — 
of  such  people  as  in  those  days  could  scarcely  have  been  found, 
but  of  whom,  alas,  there  are  very  many  now — ignorant,  neglected, 
never  rightly  taught,  much  less  converted,  who  yet  are  called 
Christians !  This  is  never  the  case  without  fault  of  their  own, 
because  from  their  baptism  upwards  grace  and  truth  has  come 
near  to  them  and  offered  itself  in  the  ordinances  of  the  Chm^ch ; 
but  never  also  without  the  guilt  of  others,  who  have  neglected 
them  and  suffered  them  to  stray.  Alas,  these  are  the  most 
wretched  of  all  blind  in  the  way  in  which  Christ  is  for  ever 
passing  by,  but  who  know  not  to  cry — Have  pity  on  us  !  (Luke 
xviii.  35-39).  They  walk  in  the  error  of  their  way,  in  death 
and  unto  death  !  And  then  we  think  further  of  those  who  are 
misled  and  entangled  in  false  doctrine,  who  hold  the  error  of 
unbelief  or  superstition  for  truth,  and  walk  accordingly.     And 


492      GREATEST  NEED,  AND  GREATEST  WORK  OF  FAITH. 

then  we  must,  moreover,  think  of  those  who  know  without 
doing ;  of  the  people  whose  heads  are  filled  with  right  know- 
ledge, but  who  are  without  the  faith  of  the  heart  and  the  obe- 
dience of  the  life  ;  the  corpses  of  faith  without  works,  which  are 
clothed  only  Mdth  words.  But  these  most  wretched  ones  are 
proud,  and  confident  in  their  cry — Behold,  we  are  not  blind, 
but  see ;  we  live,  and  are  not  dead  !  Is  not  this  for  a  lamenta- 
tion in  the  congregation  of  God  ?  Nevertheless,  it  is  not  merely 
any  one  man  among  us  here  or  there ;  alas,  many,  many  walk 
in  all  such  errors  of  their  way  to  death,  erring  variously  from 
the  truth !  If  it  were  only  one  who,  being  called  a  Christian, 
was  in  such  a  state — that  M'ould  be  incomparably  a  greater 
distress  than  if  a  brother  or  sister  among  us  were  naked  and 
destitute  of  daily  food.  That  such  misery  is  frequent,  that  it  is 
predominant  in  some  of  our  fallen  churches,  is  more  lamentable 
than  if  plague  and  pestilence,  dearth  and  famine,  and  all  sorts 
of  physical  distress,  were  blighting  us  everywhere.  This  is  the 
most  piercing  and  crying  need  of  souls,  which  should  be  helped 
of  all  who  have  faith  and  love  to  help  it. 

What  then  is  the  gt'eatest  icork  of  faith  in  love,  the  most 
needful,  the  hardest,  the  most  glorious,  and  at  the  same  time 
the  most  obvious,  work  for  every  man  who  sees  the  need  of  his 
brother  ?  The  converting  of  such  sinners  among  us  !  We,  who 
have  returned  to  the  Shepherd  and  Bishop  of  our  souls,  should 
not  indeed  forget  the  other  sheep  -wdthout,  whom  the  good  Pas- 
tor calls  to  Him,  the  heathens  who  are  to  be  turned  from  dark- 
ness to  light  and  from  the  power  of  Satan  unto  God,  nor  Israel 
after  the  flesh,  hardened,  but  not  absolutely  rejected !  St  James 
knew  well  that  there  were  many,  since  Barnabas  and  Saul, 
of  whom  the  Spirit  had  said — Separate  them  unto  Me  for  the 
work  to  which  I  have  called  them  !  (Acts  xiii.  2).  Assuredly, 
he-  did  not  mean  to  invade  the  special  province  of  those  whose 
business  it  was  to  extend  the  Church  by  missionary  labom's ;  nor 
to  interfere  with  the  common  duty  of  the  brethren  to  maintain 
and  forward  on  their  journey  those  who  thus  go  forth,  and  so 
to  be  fellow-helpers  to  the  truth  (3  John  8).  But  now  he  is 
speaking  of  the  obvious,  and  as  it  were  still  more  pressing,  work 
of  faith  and  love  which  is  imposed  upon  every  Christian,  though 
by  every  Christian  too  easily  neglected,  of  labouring  to  save  the 
sinners  in  the  Church  !  and  to  convert  whom  is,  for  two  reasons, 


JAMES  V.  19,  20.  493 

more  hard  than  to  gather  into  the  Church  the  heathens  without. 
He  among  us  who  errs  from  the  truth,  who  falls  from  the  grace  of 
baptism  and  the  Church's  ordinances — and  such  St  James  has  in 
view, — opposes  a  mightier  obstacle;  similarly,  more  faith  and 
love  and  patience  are  demanded  in  laboming  among  them,  than 
are  demanded  in  preaching  to  those  who  sit  in  the  darkness  of 
heathenism.  Do  we  not  all  know,  alas,  that  it  is  harder  to  preach 
to  our  fellow-tOA\Tismen  and  fellow-countrymen  than  to  a  strange 
people  ? — that  working  at  a  distance,  with  a  certain  consideration 
and  respect  showTi  to  us,  is  more  easy  than  the  persevering  grap- 
pling with  those  who  are  sinning  around  our  very  doors  ?  How 
many  of  us  are  careless  and  weak-hearted  in  the  face-to-face 
testimony  which  our  neighbours  require  ! 

Nevertheless,  because  it  is  the  greatest  trouble  of  the  Chui'ch 
that  there  are  in  it  sinners  walking  the  way  of  death,  St  James 
issues  a  most  urgent  summons,  valid  to  this  day,  upon  all  whose 
hearts  are  free  to  work  among  the  Lord's  people.  Brethren, 
if  any  man  among  you  do  err  from  the  truth,  and  any  man  con- 
vert him  : — by  this  general  expression  he  teaches  no  other  than 
that  the  obligation  is  urgent  upon  each  on  behalf  of  each.  No 
man  may  dare  to  say,  concerning  any  man  wdiom  he  sees  wan- 
dering in  error  with  a  multitude  of  sins — What  have  I  to  do 
vHJth  him  ?  Am  I  called  to  convert  him  ?  Is,  then,  this  great 
\ii^\i  a  specific  duty,  for  which  a  man  must  receive  the  setting 
apart  of  a  new  and  express  vocation  ?  No,  it  is  the  natm'al  and 
common  impulse  of  all  who  live  in  the  new  birth,  their  first  love, 
and  theii-  first  vow  of  gratitude.  He  who  has  truly  repented, 
has,  like  Dav-id  in  his  penitential  psalm,  promised  the  Lord — 
So  will  I  teach  transgressors  Thy  way,  that  sinners  may  be 
converted  to  Thee  (Ps.  H,  15).  Alas  that  so  little  afterwards 
remains  of  that  converting  zeal  of  first  love  which — however 
mocked,  and  however  impm'e  or  unwise  it  may  sometimes  be — 
springs  from  the  deepest  fountain  of  grace  !  Alas  that  we  "so 
soon  forget  and  neglect  to  pay  our  vows  to  the  Lord  ! 

Assuredly,  it  is  a  great  thing  to  which  St  James  calls  every 
one  who  has  faith  and  love  to  hear  the  call.  Am  I  to  convert 
the  erring  sinner  before  me,  who  is  among  us  :  what  means 
that  ?  I  must  bring  him  back  to  the  truth  from  which  he  eiTS ; 
bring  him  back  to  the  right  way,  help  him  from  death  to  life  ! 
I  should  bring  him  with  a  word  of  mine  to  Clu:'ist,  who  is  the 


494      GREATEST  NEED,  AISTD  GREATEST  WORK  OF  FATTH. 

way,  the  truth,  and  the  life  !    How  may  this  be  ?    First  of  all, 
there  must  be  the  rectifying  of  the  error  of  his  way,  the  encoun- 
tering his  present  ignorance  with  sound  instruction,  with'  good 
and  patient  testimony.      It  is  the  duty  of  every  Christian  to 
teach  the  ignorant,  wherever  he  may  find  them.    Utter  not  too 
rashly  after  the  Apostle  his  solemn  word — He  that  is  ignorant, 
let  him  be  ignorant !  (1  Cor.  xiv.  38).     He  said  that,  only  after 
he  had  done  faithfully  all  he  could  do,  and  while  he  was  still 
doing  all,  to  remove  the  ignorance  ;  as  not  till  the  end  of  Scrip- 
ture, after  all  the  riches  of  grace  and.  instruction,  do  we  hear — 
He  that  is  filthy,  let  him  be  filthy  still !  (Kev.  xxii.  11).     If  the 
mind  of  Christ  dwell  in  you,  you  will  feel  His  compassion, 
and  sympathise  like  Him  with  those  who  are  ignorant  and  out 
of  the  way  (Heb.  v.  2).     But  then  the  speaking  and  teaching  is 
not  enough,  even  with  regard  to  the  pre-eminently  ignorant, 
still  less  with  those  who  know,  without  obeying,  the  trath.     We 
must  call  them  into  the  way  of  truth  by  meek  supplication ;  we 
must  lay  hold  of  them,  and  guide  them,  yea,  constrain  them,  by 
earnest  admonition ;  we  must  take  with  us  witnesses  and  helpers 
m  this  common  work  of  God's  power ;  some  we  must  save  with 
fear,  pulling  them  with  the  violence  of  an  angel  out  of  the  fire 
of  Sodom  (Jude  23).     "VMiat  a  field  in  our  days  for  the  love  of 
those  who  love,  for  the  faith  of  those  who  believe  !     Many,  how- 
ever, will  not  be  converted  ;  but  do  not  many  only  wait,  and  alas 
wait  long  in  vain,  until  one  shall  undertake  with  all  earnestness 
the  work  of  his  conversion  ?    Lying  in  the  way  along  which  the 
priestly  people  walk,  and  finding  even  among  Christians  no  good 
Samaritan  to  take  compassion  upon  them  !     Indeed,  to  succour 
only  one  of  these,  demands  much  mighty,  effectual  love, — much 
of  that  love  which  beareth  all  things,  believeth  all  things,  hopeth 
all  things,  endureth  all  things  (1  Cor.  xiii.  7) — much  strong  faith, 
from  which  alone  such  love  can  flow — much  patience  and  labour, 
Ycixich  prayer  to  the  Lord  for  his  poor  soul.     But  all  these  expres- 
sions belong  naturally  and  necessarily  to  a  genuine  and  sound 
spirit  and  life  of  Christianity.    What  is  the  strongest,  most  endur- 
ing might  in  the  salvation  of  souls  around  thee  ?    Thy  own  holy 
conversation,  thy  walking  in  the  light  which  shines  around  thee, 
thy  own  persevering  progress  in  the  way  of  life  with  firm  and  cer- 
tain steps.     Thus  many  were  to  be  won  by  the  conversation  of 
their  wives,  without  the  word  (1  Pet.  iii.  1).     No  man  will  be 


JAMES  V.  19,  20,  495 

Avanting  in  priestly  works  and  fruits,  of  whom  the  Lord  can 
utter  the  great  testimony — The  law  of  truth  is  in  his  mouth  ;  he 
walketh  with  Me  in  peace  and  equity,  and  turneth  many  away 
from  iniquity  (Mai.  ii.  6).  He  who  is  thus  minded  will  never 
fail  to  desire  to  convert  many  from  their  sin ;  but  many  will, 
without  any  express  will  of  his  own,  be  enlightened  and  drawn 
by  the  silent  energy  of  his  holy  life. 

With  friendly  encouragement,  St  James  tells  us  at  the  con- 
clusion why  such  a  xoork  is  the  greatest  and  most  glorious  !  He 
has  no  specific  promise  for  it,  he  has  no  specific  reward  to  offer; 
but  the  rich  recompense  is  in  the  work  itself ;  the  act  of  convert- 
ing a  sinner  is  in  itself  so  great  and  sublime,  to  be  compared 
with  no  other  in  its  glory  and  godlikeness.  It  accomplishes  the 
will  of  God ;  it  leads  to  the  goal  of  all  God's  design  and  work 
for  eveiy  erring  and  lost  soul,  that  it  should  not  perish.  He 
w^ho  lays  hold  of  this,  should  know  that  the  brother  wdio  hath 
converted  a  sinner  from  the  error  of  his  way  hath  saved  a  soul 
from  death  !  Luther  thus  expresses  the  greatness  of  the  work 
accomplished ;  St  J  ames,  however,  has  made  it  a  promise,  that 
the  exhortation  and  stimulus  may  never  cease  :  he  that  con- 
verteth  the  sinner  shall  help  a  soul  from  death,  shall  deliver  him 
from  death,  shall  save  hint  I  And,  when  he  has  experienced 
how  glorious  a  thing  it  is  to  save  one  soul,  he  will  strive  to 
save  a  second,  and  then  others ;  he  will  not  rest  with  that  first 
work  of  love.  O  let  us  put  our  hands  to  this  most  noble  work, 
to  save  souls  from  the  death  of  sin,  from  the  damnation  of 
hell !  This  is  infinitely  more  than  all  benevolence  to  their 
bocUly  needs ;  and  infinitely  more  than  that  lesser,  and  often 
useless  work,  of  merely  saving  people  from  their  errors,  con- 
verting from  their  opinions, — possibly  to  your  own  opinions  in- 
stead of  to  the  truth,  and  to  a  holy  life  in  the  way  of  truth. 
But  woe  to  every  man  who,  on  the  other  hand,  helps  a  sinner 
on  the  way  to  death  by  seduction  or  offence ;  who,  with  his 
dead  faith,  buries  the  dead ! 

The  Lord  alone  can  help  and  save  souls.  But  this  He 
does  through  instruments  of  His  power,  vessels  of  His  grace. 
Therefore  the  Scripture  does  not  shrink  from  attributing 
Ijoldly  to  us  poor  sinners  the  salvation  of  our  fellow-sinners. 
The  Apostle  aimed  to  save  some  of  his  own  people  in  the 
flesh  (Rom.  xi.  1^:).     He  promises  Timothy  the  bishop,  that  in 


496      GREATEST  NEED,  AND  GREATEST  WORK  OF  FAITH. 

doing  his  duty  he  should  both  save  himself  and  those  that 
heard  him  (1  Tim.  iv.  16).  Similarly  he  speaks  of  the  wife 
saving  her  husband,  and  the  husband  saving  his  wife  (1  Cor. 
vii.  16).  Yes,  brethren,  we  may  save  one  another,  and  help 
one  another  to  escape  from  death  :  this  is  a  great  blessing,  the 
greatest  and  most  precious  promise  of  rich  grace  for  our  poor 
souls  !  When  you  would  appropriate  this  in  faith,  your  unbe- 
lieving fear  may  rise — Alas,  so  many  are  there  of  these  wan- 
derers and  sinners  in  the  Church,  who  may  dare  to  set  his  hand 
to  this  work?  But  the  text  does  not  suppose  that  you  are  to  con- 
vert them  all;  it  does  not  even  speak  of  many  ;  but  only  of  one, 
and  primarily  that  one  who  most  perplexes  and  gricA^es  you,  who 
is  most  directly  thrust  upon  your  regards.  Make  the  beginning 
in  thine  own  sphere;  and  neglect  not  the  one,  in  thy  anxiety  for 
great  things.  Look  not  at  what  the  sinner  is  in  the  world's 
view,  neglect  not  and  despise  not  the  very  least  among  them  ! 
For  one  soul,  created  by  God,  and  which  Christ  hath  pur- 
chased with  His  blood,  is  worth  more  than  the  whole  world, 
which  would  be  too  small  a  price  for  its  ransom.  He  who 
saveth  one  soul  from  death  hath  done  a  great  work ;  he  hath 
won  for  Christ  a  new  heir  of  the  inheritance,  and  for  himself 
a  brother  thankful  to  all  eternity. 

He  who  shall  effect  this — says  St  James  finally — shall  cover 
the  multitude  of  sins ;  or,  a  multitude  of  sins.  What  does  he 
mean  by  that  ?  Does  it  mean  the  sins  of  him  who  converts,  as 
if  his  own  trespasses  were  repaired  and  atoned  for  by  the  merit 
of  this  good  work  ?  Very  far  from  it.  He  who  would  convert 
others,  is  understood  to  be  converted  himself;  and  therefore 
has  no  longer  a  multitude  of  sins  to  be  covered.  Otherwise, 
leave  that  work  untouched,  and  care  first  for  thine  own  soul! 
For  if  the  blind  lead  the  blind,  both  shall  fall  into  the  ditch 
(Matt.  XV.  14).  St  James  speaks  of  the  sins  of  the  sinner  who 
is  converted ;  and  would  tell  us,  that  in  every  individual  sinner 
in  the  error  of  his  ways  there  is  a  multitude  of  sins.  Yea,  verily, 
the  life  of  man  without  grace  and  truth  is  full  of  nothing  but 
sin,  which  waxes  from  day  to  day,  eating  round  and  round  in 
endless  corruption,  until  a  final  stop  is  put !  Seest  thou  the 
sinner  and  the  error  of  his  way  before  thine  eyes,  then  thou 
must  see  and  know  the  multitude  of  his  sins,  without  the  ne- 
cessity of  his  first  confessing  them.     Then  comes  in  the  v>ork 


JAMES  V.  li),  20.  497 

of  chanty,  to  cover  transgressions  and  sins — as  St  James,  like 
St  Peter,  quotes  the  saying  of  Solomon  (IPet.  iv.  8  ;  Prov.  x.  12). 
Thus,  first.  If  thou  hast  love,  thou  wilt  not  be  terrified  at  this 
multitude  of  sins,  as  if  grace  would  no  longer  cover  them  ;  thou 
vfWt  not  fear,  as  if  nothing  could  be  done ;  thou  wilt  not  judge 
and  condemn,  as  if  salvation  were  impossible.  Then,  when  be- 
fore thine  own  eyes  the  sin  of  thy  redeemed  and  called  brother  is 
covered,  do  thou  thy  best  to  bring  him  to  the  atonement  for  him- 
self ;  set  before  him  the  mercy-seat,  that  he  may  actually  receive 
forgiveness,  and  with  it  new  life,  freedom  from  sin,  and  sancti- 
fication  unto  final  blessedness.  This  is  very  different  from  that 
false  and  effeminate  covering  of  sin  with  the  so-called  mantle 
of  charity;  that  will  not  suffice  to  cover  and  take  away  sin, 
either  now  or  in  the  day  of  the  Lord ;  their  multitude  will  remain 
beneath  it,  unforgiven  and  unhealed. 

Hide  a  multitude  of  sins  !  This  is  the  remarkable  abrupt 
conclusion  of  the  whole  Epistle ;  which  adds  no  other  w^ord, 
that  tliis  one  may  ring  out  for  ever.  Let  us  observe,  first,  how 
St  James  here,  also,  in  the  last  word  once  more  derives  all,  all 
from  the  grace  of  reconciliation;  and  presupposes  the  entire 
new  life  of  the  sinner  saved  from  sin,  his  walking  in  the  truth, 
as  the  necessary  result' when  the  multitude  of  his  former  sins  is 
truly  covered.  But  let  us  observe,  further,  how  he  requires  of 
those  who  have  received  grace,  the  works  and  energies  of  that 
grace  which  proceed  from  one  soul  to  another !  The  last  and 
most  urgent  cry  of  his  heart — Save  others  from  death,  as  the 
Lord  has  saved  you !  he  utters  in  the  form  of  affectionate 
promise ;  and  with  that  he  suddenly  breaks  off,  as  if  nothing 
further  or  higher  remained  to  be  said.  But  this  cry  must  be 
m-ged  upon  all  for  ever,  as  long  as  sinners  are  around  us  in  the 
multitude  of  their  sins.  It  is  as  if  he  had  said — "  Brethren,  I 
have  done  my  part  in  this  Epistle,  that  none  of  you  may  remain 
in  sin  and  error ;  but  my  Epistle  has  not  accompHshed  all ; 
all  my  exhortation  and  teaching  will  leave  something  yet  to  be 
done — let  it  be  your  care  to  do  it  among  yourselves,  that  the 
work  of  salvation  may  go  on  !" 

The  same  words  let  us  hear  for  ourselves.  The  multitude 
of  sinners'  sins  is,  alas,  most  awfully  before  our  eyes !  Let  him 
who  can  joyfully  make  his  boast — Blessed  is  the  man  whose 
transgressions  are  forgiven,  whose  sin  is  covered!  (Ps.  xxxii.  1) — 

2i 


498      GREATEST  NEED,  AND  GREATEST  WORK  OF  FAITH. 

think  of  his  neighbour,  and  desire  to  bring  him  to  the  same 
blessing  !  Let  work  in  faith  and  labour  in  love  (1  Thess.  i.  3) 
go  on  in  the  Church  for  the  salvation  of  souls!  The  Avord 
which  has  been  preached  to  us,  and  dwelleth  among  us,  is  far 
from  having  accomplished  its  work !  Christ  hath  died  and 
risen  again  for  all ;  but  those  who  live  are  not  yet  His,  not 
even  in  His  Church.  By  His  people  He  works,  for  the  con- 
tinual putting  away  of  multitudes  of  sins  ;  saving  one  soul  after 
another  from  death.  This  is  the  work  of  the  love  which  His 
Holy  Spirit  sheds  abroad  in  the  hearts  of  believers.  May  this 
love  never  fail !     Amen. 


GENERAL  INDEX  TO   PASSAGES 

TEEATED  OF  IN  THE  EIGHT  VOLUMES  OF 
"WOEDS  OF  THE  LOED  JESUS." 


Page 

Page 

Matt 

iii.  15, 

Vol.  i.    28 

Matt.  xiv.  27,  29,  31,          .    Vol.  ii.  277 

J) 

iv.  10, 

i.    «4 

„      XV.  3-20,        .            .             ii.  283 

)) 

iv.  17, 

i.    81 

„      XV.  24,  26,  28,            .             ii.  303 

f„ 

iV.  19,            .        i.  i 

i5  and  iii.  451 

„      XV.  32-34,      .            .             ii.  311 

v.-vii. 

i.    90 

„      xvi.  2-4,        .      ii.  315  and  iv.    13 

!)) 

V.  1-48, 

i.  100 

„      xvi.  6,  8,  11,       ii.  321  and  iv.    11 

r.> 

V.  25,  26,       . 

iv.    13 

„      xvi.  13-28,    .            .             ii.  328 

vi.  1-8, 

i.  209 

„      xvii.  7,  9,  11,  12,       .             ii.  361 

^^ 

vi.  9-13,         .       i.  21 

8  and  iii.  527 

„      xvii.  17-21,    .            .             ii.  372 

1) 

vi.  14-34,       . 

i.  249 

„      xvii.  20,         .            .            iv.  250 

vi.  19-21,       . 

iv.    13 

„      xvii.  22,  23,  .            .             ii.  384 

11 

vi.  2.5-33,       . 

iv.    13 

„      xvii.  25-27,   .            .             ii.  386 

)j 

vii.  1-29, 

i.  275 

„      xviii.  3-20,     .    ii.  392  and  iii.  397 

vii.  7-11, 

iii.  527 

„      xviii.  6,  7,  15,  21,  22,            iv.  250 

ij 

vii.  13,  14,  21-23, 

iv.    52 

„      xviii.  12,  13,              .            iv.  107 

viii.  3,  4, 

i.  341 

„      xviii.  22-35,  .            .             ii.  429 

5J 

viii.  11, 12,     . 

iv.    52 

„      xix.  4—14,       .            .            iii.     1 

viii.  7-13,       . 

i.  345 

„      xix.  17-xx.  16,          .            iii.    22 

?) 

viii.  20-22,     . 

1.  352 

„      XX.  16,           .            .            iv.    52 

)) 

viii.  26, 

i.  362 

„      XX.  18-28,      .            .            iii.    62 

)) 

viii.  32, 

i.  367 

„      xxi.  19-22,     .            .            iii.    97 

ix.  2-6, 

i.  374 

„      xxi.  24-44,    .           .           iii.  105 

1J 

ix.  9-13, 

i.  381 

„      xxii.  2-14,      .    iii.  131  and  iv.    69 

ix.  15-17,       . 

i.  391 

„      xxii.  18-21,    .            .            iii.  145 

j^ 

ix.  22, 

i.  404 

„      xxii.  29-32,    .            .            iii.  157 

„ 

ix.  24, 

i.  408 

„      xxii.  37-45,   .            .            iii.  176 

^^ 

ix.  28-30,       . 

i.  414 

„      xxiii.  2-39,    .    iii.  204  and  iv.      4 

^^ 

ix.  36-38,       . 

i.  416 

„      xxiii.  12,        .            .            iv.    69 

)) 

X.  5^2, 

ii.    28 

„      xxiii.  37-39,               .            iv.    59 

Jl 

X.  19,  20, 

iv.    11 

„      xxiv.  and  xxv.           .            iii.  244 

)J 

X.  26-33, 

iv.    11 

„      xxiv.  2,  4-28,            .            iii.  251 

X.  34-36, 

iv.    13 

„      xxiv.  22-51,               .            iv.    13 

^j 

X.  37,  38, 

iv.'  69 

„      xxiv.  17,  18,  23-28,  37^1,  iv.  269 

^^ 

xi.  4-30, 

ii.    59 

„      xxiv.  29-44,               .            iii.  279 

j| 

xii.  3-8, 

ii.  125 

„      xxiv.  45-51,              .            iii.  300 

1) 

xii.  10,  11,     ■ 

iv.    67 

„      xxv.  1-13,     .            .            iii.  305 

xii.  11-13,     . 

ii.  137 

„      xxv.  14^30,    .     iii.  318  and  iv.  321 

)1 

xii.  25-45,     . 

ii.  140 

„      xxv.  31-46,    .            .            iii.  331 

xii.  31,  32,     . 

iv.    11 

„      xxvi.  2,          .            .           vii.      1 

1) 

xii.  48-50,      . 

ii.  189 

„      xxvi.  10-13,               .            vi.    58 

); 

xiii.    . 

ii.  193 

„    •  xxvi.  18,        .            .           vii.      7 

xiii.  11-17,    . 

ii.  201 

„      xxvi.  21-25,               .           vii.    40 

J1 

xiii.  3-9,  18-23, 

ii.  213 

„      xxvi.  26-28,               .           vii.    67 

xiii.  24-30,  37-43, 

ii.  229 

„      xxvi.  29,        .            .           vii.  163 

)) 

xiii.  31-33,    . 

ii.  248 

„      xxvi.  31-34,  .            .          vii.  182 

xiii.  44r-50,    . 

ii;  258 

„      xxvi.  36-42,  .                       vii.  218 

11 

xiii.  51,  52,    . 

ii.  267 

„      xxvi.  45,  46, .                       vii.  260 

xiii.  57, 

iii.  429 

„      xxvi.  50,                               vii.  276 

„ 

xiv.  16-19,     . 

ii.  270 

,       xxvi.  52-54,                        vii.  290 

500 


GENERAL  INDEX  TO  PASSAGES. 


Matt.  xsvi.  55,  50, 

„  xxvi.  64, 

„  xxvii.  11, 

„  xxvii.  46, 

„  xxviii.  9,  10, 

„  xxviii.  18-20, 
MAiiK  i.  15, 

„  i.  17, 

„  i.  25, 

„  i.  38, 

„  i.  41-44, 

„  ii.  5,  8,  8-11, 

„  ii.  14-17, 

„  ii.  19-22, 

„  ii.  23-28, 

„  iii.  3-5, 

„  iii.  9, 17, 

„  iii.  28-29, 

„  iii.  33-35, 

„  iv.  11,  12,  21-25, 

„  iv.  3-9,  13-20, 

„  iv.  26-29,       . 

„  iv.  30-32,       . 

„  iv.  35-39,  40, 

„  V.   8,  9,  19, 

„  V.  30-34, 

„  V.  30-41  (43), 

„  vi.  4, 

„  vi.  8-11, 

„  vi.  31,  37-41, 

„  vi.  34, 

„  vi.  50, 

„  vii.  6-23, 

„  vii.  27,  29, 

„  vii.  34-36, 

„  viii.  2,  3,  5, 

„  viii.  12, 

„  viii.  15,  17-21, 

.,  viii.  23,  25,  26, 

„  Viii.  27— ix.  1, 

„  ix.  9,  12,  13, 

„  ix.  16,  19,  21,  29, 

„  ix.  31, 

„  ix.  33-50, 

„  X.  3-16, 

„  X.  18-31, 

„  X.  33-45, 

„  xi.  14,  22,  26, 

„  xi.  29 ;  xii.  11, 
„      xii.  15-17, 
„      xii.  24-27, 
„      xii.  29-37, 
„     xii.  38-40, 

„  ^ii.  43,  44, 
„      xiii.  2,  5-23, 
„      xiii.  24-33, 
„     xiii.  34-37, 
„     xiv.  6-9, 
„      xiv.  13-15, 
„      xiv.  18-21, 
„      xiv  22-24, 
„      xiv.  25, 
„      xiv.  27-30, 
„      xiv.  32-39, 
„      xiv.  41,  42, 


Page 

Vol.  vii.  298 

vii.  321 

vii.  341 

vii.  479 

viii.  90 

viii.  277 

81  and  iii.  451 

i.  85 

iii.  375 

iii.  378 

i.  .341 

i.  374 

i.  381 

i.  391 

ii.  125 

ii.  137 

iii.  381 

ii.  140 

ii.  189 

ii.  201 

ii.  213 

iii.  384 

ii.  248 

i.  362 

i.  307 

i.  404 

i.  408 

iii.  429 

ii.   1 

ii.  270 

i.  416 

ii.  277 

ii.  283 

ii.  303 

iii.  391 

ii.  311 

ii.  315 

ii.  321 

iii.  395 

ii.  328 

ii.  361 

ii.  372 

ii.  384 

.  392  and  iii.  397 

iii.   1 

iii.  22 

iii.  02 

iii.  97 

iii.  105 

iii.  145 

iii.  157 

iii.  176 

iii.  204 

iii.  424 

iii.  251 

iii.  279 

iii.  300 

vi.  58 

vii.   7 

vii.  40 

vii.  67 

vii.  103 

vii.  182 

vii.  218 

vii.  200 


Mark  xiv.  48,  49, 

„  xiv.  02, 

„  XV.  2, 

„  XV.  34, 

„  xvi.  14, 

,,  xvi.  15-18, 
Luke  ii.  49, 

„  iv.  4,  8,  12, 

„  iv.  4, 10, 

„  iv.  17-27, 

„  iv.  35, 

„  iv.  43, 

„  V.  4-10, 

„  V.  13,  14, 

„  V.  20,  22-24, 

„  V.  27-32, 

„  V.  35-39, 

„  vi.  3-5, 

„  vi.  8-10, 

„  vi.  20-49, 

„  vii.  9, 

„  vii.  13,  14, 

„  vii.  22-35, 

„  vii.  40-50, 

,  viii.  5-8,  11-15, 

,  viii.  10,  10,  18, 

,  viii.  21, 

,,  viii.  22-25, 

,,  viii.  30-39, 

„  viii.  4,5-48, 

„  viii.  50-54,  (5 

„  ix.  3-5, 

„  ix.  13-16, 

„  ix.  18-27, 

„  ix.  41, 

„  ix.  44, 

„  ix.  48-50, 

„  ix.  55,  50, 

„  ix.  58-60, 

„  ix.  62, 

»  X.  2,     . 

„  X.  2-16, 

„  X.  18-24, 

„  X.  20-37, 
„      X.  41,  42, 

„  xi.  2-13, 
„      xi.  17-36, 
„      xi.  28, 
„      xi.  39-52, 
„      xii.  1-12, 
„      xii.  14-59, 
„      xii.  42-40, 
„      xiii.  2-9, 
„      xiii.  8-21, 
„      xiii.  12,  15,  16 
„      xiii.  24-30, 
„      xiii.  32-35, 
„      xiv.  3-5, 
„      xiv.  8-35, 
„      XV.  4-xvi.  31 
„      XV.  4-10. 
„      XV.  11-32, 
„      xvi.  1-13, 
„      xvi.  1.5-31, 
„      xvii.  1-10, 


56), 


Vol.  vii.  298 
vii.  321 
vii.  341 
vii.  479 
viii.  138 
viii.  227 
i.  18 
1.34 
i.  85 
iii.  429 
iii.  375 
iii.  378 
iii.  451 
i.  341 
i.  374 
i.  381 
i.  391 
ii.  125 
ii.  137 
i.  90,  326 
i.  345 
iii.  454 
ii.  59 
iii.  458 
ii.  213 
ii.  201 
ii.  189 
i.  302 
i.  307 
i.  404 
i.  408 
ii.   1 
ii.  270 
ii.  328 
ii.  372 
ii.  384 
192  and  iii.  397 
iii.  474 
i.  352 
iii.  480 
i.  416 
iii.  484 
iii.  488 
iii.  498 
iii.  515 
iii.  527 
ii.  140 
iv.   1 
iv.   4 
iv.  11 
iv.  13 
iii.  300 
iv.  38 
ii.  248 
iv.  47 
iv.  52 
iv.  59 
iv.  67 
iv.  69 
iv.  101 
iv.  107 
iv.  121 
iv.  163 
iv.  200 
iv.  250 


GENERAL  INDEX  TO  PASSAGES. 


501 


LuKExvii.  3,  4, 

„  xvii.  1-i,  17-19, 

„  xviii.  2-8, 

„  xviii.  10-14, 

,,  xviii.  16,  17, 

„  xviii.  18-30, 

„  xviii.  20-37, 

„  xviii.  31-33, 

„  xix.  5.  9.  10, 

„  xix.  12-27, 

„  xix.  19,  20, 

„  xix.  40,  42-44 

„  XX.  3-18, 

„  XX.  23-25, 

„  XX.  34-38, 

„  XX.  41-44, 

„  XX.  46,  47  (xi 

34,  35), 

„  xxi.  3,  4, 

„  xxi.  6,  8-24, 

„  xxi.  25-36, 

,,  xxii.  1, 

„  xxii.  8-12, 

„  xxii.  15-18, 

„  xxii.  21,  22, 

„  xxii.  22, 

„  xxii.  25-30, 

„  xxii.  31-34, 

„  xxii.  34, 

„  xxii.  35-38, 

„  xxii.  40-42,  46, 

,,  xxii.  46, 

„  xxii.  48, 

,,  xxii.  52,  53, 

„  xxii.  67-70, 

„  xxiii.  3, 

„  xxiii.  28-31, 

„  xxiii.  34, 

„  xxiii.  43, 

„  xxiii.  46, 

„  xxiv.  17,  27, 

„  xxiv.  36-11, 

„  xxiv.  41  49, 

John  i.  38-51, 

„  ii..4-8, 

„  ii.  16-19, 

„  iii.  3-21, 

„  iv.  7-26, 

„',  iv.  32-38, 

„'  iv.  48-50, 

„  V.  6,  8,  14, 

„  V.  7.  19-47, 

„  vi.  5,  10-12, 

„  vi.  20, 


iv.,  3: 


39-; 


Page 
Vol.  ii.  429 
iv.  264 
iv.  287 
iv.  297 
iii.  1 
iii.  22 
iv.  269 
iii.  62 
iv.  314 
21  and  iii.  138 
vii.  67 
iv.  328 
iii.  105 
iii.  145 
iii.  157 
iii.  176 
52,  xiii. 

iii.  204 

.iii.  424 

iii.  251 

iii.  279 

vii.  285 

vii.   7 

vii.  32 

vii.  168 

vii.  40 

vii.  16 

vii.  170 

vi.  173 

vii.  l99 

vii.  218 

vii.  260 

vii.  276 

vii.  298 

vii.  336 

vii.  341 

vii.  415 

vii.  434 

vii.  446 

viii.  27 

viii.  100 

viii.  138 

viii.  387 

i.  48 

i.  61 

i.  67 

iv.  359 

V.   1 

V.  50 
V.  66 
V.  74 
V.  83 
ii.  276 
u.  277 


Page 

John 

vi.  26-58, 

Vol.  V.  149 

»j 

vi.  61-65, 

V.  205 

vi.  67-70,       . 

V.  225 

j^ 

vii.  6-8, 

V.  233 

n 

vii.  16-29,      . 

V.  243 

vii   3.3,34,      . 

V.  270 

|] 

vii.  33,  38,      . 

V.  276 

viii.  7, 10,  11, 

V.  293 

viii.  12-19,     . 

V.  314 

viii.  21-58,     . 

V.  330 

ix.  3-7,  35-37, 

V.  421 

^^ 

ix.  39-x.  18,  . 

V.  448 

x.  25-30, 

V.  484 

x.  32-38, 

V.  494 

j^ 

xi,  4,  7,  9-11,  14, 15, 

vi.      1 

,j 

xi.  23,  25,  26, 

vi.    20 

xi.  34,  39-44, 

vi.    33 

xii.  7,  8, 

vi.    58 

, 

xii.  23-36,      . 

vi.    75 

xii.  44-50,      . 

vi.  101 

" 

xiii.  7-20,       . 

vi.  110 

xiii.  21, 

vii.    40 

xiii.  23-29,    . 

vii.  168 

xiii.  26,  27,    . 

vi.  142 

xiii.  31-35, 

vi.  150 

xiii.  36-38,    .    vi.  17 

3  and  vii.  170 

xiv.  1-31,       . 

vi.  176 

" 

xiv.  1-10,       . 

vi.  182 

xiv.  11-24,     . 

vi.  209 

xiv.  25-31,     . 

vi.  245 

" 

XV.  1-6, 

vi.  266 

XV.  7-17, 

vi.  286 

XV.  18-25,      . 

vi.  301 

XV.  26-xvi.  4, 

vi.  319 

xvi.  5-15,       . 

vi.  335 

'^ 

xvi.  16-24,     . 

vi.  373 

xvi.  25-33,     . 

vi.  397 

'^ 

xvii. 

vi.  421 

xviii.  4,  7,  8, 

vii.  265 

xviii.  11, 

vii.  290 

' 

xviii.  20,  21,  23, 

vii.  304 

xviii.  34-37, 

vii.  341 

^j 

xix.  11, 

vii.  383 

j_ 

xix.  26,  27,    . 

vii.  467 

n 

xix.  28, 

viii.      1 

xix.  30, 

viii.    18 

jj 

XX.  15-17,      . 

viii.    50 

XX.  19-23,      . 

viii.  138 

)j 

XX.  26-29,     . 

viii.  177 

jj 

xxi.  5,  6,  10,  12, 

viii.  205 

,1 

xxi.  15-22,     . 

viii.  229 

Acts  i.  4-8, 

viii.  410 

1  Cor.  xi.  24,  26,     . 

vii.    67 

THE  END. 


DATE  DUE 

"ip 

I 

j              1 
1 

GAYLORD 

PRINTED  IN  U.S    A. 

